Monestario Santa Catalina Arequipa A must-see in the White City of Arequipa, Santa Catalina Monastery was begun in 1579/1580, forty years after the city was founded. The monastery was enlarged over the centuries until it became a city within the city, about 20000 sq./m. and covering a good sized city block. At one time, 450 nuns and their lay servants resided within the community, closed off from the city by high walls. Built with sillar, the white volcanic rock that gives Arequipa the name of the White City, and ashlar, petrified volcanic ash from Volcan Chachani overlooking the city, the monastery was closed off to the city, but much of it is open to the intensely blue sky over the southern Peruvian desert.