Ruins of Peru's oldest Roman Catholic church found?

The church outside the northern coastal city of Piura was built in 1534 but its mud walls deteriorated over time as Spanish conquistadors abandoned the area, said archaeologist Cesar Astuhuaman of Piura University.

Historical documents discovered in an archive in Sevilla, Spain, helped Peruvian and Spanish academics discover the ruins, whose rectangular stone perimeter remains intact along with an altar, he said in a phone interview Friday.

The church was part of the first settlement established in Peru, which would become the seat of Spanish colonial power, by adventurers led by Francisco Pizarro.