Sucre

Sucre, city in southern Bolivia, legal (although nominal) national capital, more than 2,591 m (8,500 ft) above sea level. Sucre is south-east of La Paz, the national administrative centre, and its mountain setting, whitewashed buildings, and well-preserved architecture make it one of the most beautiful cities in Bolivia. Many of the buildings around the main plaza still retain Spanish colonial features in their archways, balconies, and porticos. More than a dozen colonial churches also grace the city’s streets. Numerous museums display Sucre’s rich past, with art and artefact collections dating from the pre-Columbian, colonial, and post-colonial eras. Parchments documenting Bolivia’s struggle for freedom, including the original Declaration of Independence, are protected in the city’s historic museum, the Casa de la Libertad. The Supreme Court is located in the city, which is also the site of San Francisco Xavier University (1624), one of the oldest institutions of higher education in South America.

Road connections and rail links make Sucre a natural commercial centre for the outlying communities of the Altiplano. The city is a marketing and food-processing centre for the surrounding agricultural region, in which fruit and wheat are grown. In Sucre are oil refineries, and plants producing cement, shoes, and tobacco products.

The city was founded as Chuquisaca by Spanish settlers in 1538, near the site of a Native American village on the eastern slopes of the Andes. Over the years the city has been called Charcas and La Plata. It received its present name in 1840, in honour of the first Bolivian president, Antonio José de Sucre, a revolutionary who fought alongside Simón Bolívar. In 1809 Sucre was one of the first cities in South America to revolt against Spanish rule. It was named as the capital of Bolivia in 1839. Although the executive and legislative branches of the national government now operate in La Paz, the Supreme Court still convenes in Sucre, making the city the legal capital of Bolivia. The historic part of the city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. Population 288,290 (2008 estimate).