Quri Wasi
| Quri Wasi | |
Quri Wasi (Wechua for "golden house") | |
 A photograph of Quri Wasi; dated 1740 AN. | |
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Type | Royal country residence |
| Architectural style | Wechua highland vernacular |
| Location | Yucay, Wechua Nation |
| Country |
 Nouvelle Alexandrie |
| Elevation | 2,850 meters (approx.) |
| Current tenants | Princess Urpi and Prince Gerard |
| Owner | Marquessate of Yucay |
| Technical details | |
| Material | Stone, adobe, and timber |
| Floor count | 2 |
| Grounds | 4 hectares |
Quri Wasi (Wechua for "golden house") is a royal country residence at Yucay, in the Wechua Nation of Nouvelle Alexandrie. Long kept by the royal House of Inti-Carrillo as a summer lodge and a place of family gathering, it has served since 1754 AN as the seat of the Marquessate of Yucay, held by Princess Urpi and her husband, Prince Gerard. A modest lodge rather than a palace, Quri Wasi is also the site of the shrine of the guardian of Yucay, an enshrined ancestral wak'a venerated in the Faith of Inti.
History
Quri Wasi stands on ground the Wechua royal house had frequented since antiquity, in the temperate valley that drew the Wechua elite as a retreat from the colder highland seats. Through the generations it served the crown as an informal residence, a summer lodge to which the royal family withdrew for rest and for its gatherings, apart from the ceremony of the great palaces at Parap and Cárdenas.
In 1754 AN King Sinchi Roca II made the lodge over to his second daughter, Princess Urpi, and her husband, Major Gerard Skuryov-Spooner, together with the newly created Marquessate of Yucay, as a gift on their marriage. The gift was valued less for the property than for its associations, the King having given to the couple the retreat where the family had long held its reunions. Quri Wasi has been the country seat of the marquessate since, and continues to draw visits from the extended royal house.
Description
Quri Wasi is a working country residence rather than a grand palace, and its scale is modest beside the dynastic seats of the House of Inti-Carrillo. Built in the highland vernacular of the Wechua Nation from stone, adobe, and timber, the lodge rises two stories around a central courtyard, with terraced gardens worked into the valley floor below it. Its rooms are furnished for the comfort of a resident household and its guests rather than for state display, in keeping with the restraint the royal house observes in its private life.
Religious significance
Quri Wasi holds the shrine of the guardian of Yucay, the enshrined wak'a of the princess Quri Sisa, remembered in tradition as a daughter of the ancient Wechua royal line who kept the valley as her retreat and was laid to rest there. In the Faith of Inti the lodge is regarded as a place where her ancestral spirit remains present, and the household maintains the offering cult through the reciprocity of ayni, with a resident paqo overseeing the rites. The guardian's favor is held to shield the family who make Quri Wasi their home.
