PEDRO DE CANDIA AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU

“…He was the first European to tread the soil of the Tawantinsuyo Empire, the first mayor of the city founded by the Spanish conquistadors in the Inca capital of Cuzco, and the first conquistador to cross the inaccessible mountain peaks of the Andes, traversing the formidable mountain range from west to east, and entering the Amazon jungle…”

Pedro de Candía (Petros o Kritikos), a key collaborator of Francisco Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, stands out among the Greeks who participated in the discovery and exploration of the Americas.

What made Peter follow Pizarro, what did he face once he arrived in Peru, how did he behave during the events that followed, what role did he play in the whole venture… and, finally, how did a Cretan manage to become a legend in the Old and New World?

In this book by Charalambos Korakas, Greek ambassador to Spain and Peru and an expert in Spanish culture, we follow the course of the Cretan conquistador on his travels, based on historical sources. The narrative takes us to the time of the discovery of the New World and makes us partakers of the historical events during which an entire empire, that of the Incas, was brought to ruin.