The public buildings of Callao are situated chiefly in the central part of the city, on one of the numerous squares, or plazas. The most conspicuous of these edifices is the custom house, the chief _aduana_ of the republic. It occupies the site formerly enclosed in the city’s fortresses, and is a spacious building; though, it is claimed, the accommodations do not fulfil the requirements of an establishment of this kind, as the first custom house of Peru. The post office building is a solid, well-built structure, overlooking the plaza; the prefecture occupies a large and commodious building, the lower part of which is used for the offices of the police authorities, the Junta Departmental, the treasury and the criminal court; the civil court holds its sessions elsewhere. Callao has a town council, a chamber of commerce, an excellent fire brigade composed of four companies, a benevolent society which maintains the hospitals of Guadalupe and San Juan de Dios, several churches, and three social clubs. There are two protestant churches in the city and two foreign clubs. The English Club has its headquarters in a building overlooking the bay; its broad verandahs, adorned with shrubs and plants, present a very attractive picture from the landing-place. For amusement, there is a theatre and a bull ring, and lovers of sport have their rifle and regatta clubs, besides which there is also the Naval Club and the Italian Club. In the principal plazas of the city, monuments have been erected in honor of the national heroes. The Plaza Grau has a handsome monument in memory of the heroic commander of the _Huascar_; a statue of General San Martin adorns the beautiful Plaza Matriz; and in the Plaza “Dos de Mayo” stands a marble pillar, supporting a bust of the hero José Galvez, Minister of War, who was killed in the naval battle of 1866, in the bay of Callao. [Illustration: STATUE OF THE LIBERATOR, CALLAO.]