The second square to be laid out in Lima,[2] it took its original name from the Indian hospital located next to it. Of this hospital, only the chapel remains, currently functioning as a church.[1] With the construction of the neighbourhood or redoubt of Cercado de Indias, later known as Santiago del Cercado, a series of streets were laid out that would give rise to the current neighbourhood of Barrios Altos.
In 1821, José de San Martín declared the Independence of Peru in this square, as he had previously done in the Plaza de Armas and the square of La Merced.[3] In the middle of the 19th century, in its surroundings, the largest Italian neighbourhood of the city was established, highlighting among them the Quinta Carbone and the Quinta Baselli. In honour of one of its greatest neighbours, the Italian naturalist Antonio Raimondi, it was renamed Plaza Italia after the inauguration of the monument in 1910 by then president Guillermo Billinghurst.[4]
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