Bolivia Guide
La Paz
Palacio Presidencial
Address: South side of Plaza Murillo
The elegant Neoclassical Palacio Presidencial, its ceremonial guards in red nineteenth-century uniforms from the War of the Pacific discreetly backed up by military policemen with more modern equipment, isn't open to the public, but the guards may let you have a look at the central courtyard when the president is not in residence. Completed in 1852, the palace is generally known as the Palacio Quemado – the "Burnt Palace" – after it was badly damaged by fire in 1875 during one of the more violent of Bolivia's many revolutionary episodes. Rebels opposed to the then-president, Tomas Frias, set the palace alight after repeated attempts to storm it failed. The following morning the bodies of some 130 people killed in the fighting were strewn across the square and in nearby streets. In front of the Cathedral a bust of former president Gualberto Villaroel provides a reminder of a more successful, if equally gruesome, revolutionary attempt which occurred in 1946, when Villaroel – at the mercy of popular anger after brutally repressing opponents on both sides of the political spectrum – was thrown from a palace window by a mob and hanged from a lamppost.