Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Iglesia de la Merced
Diagonally opposite the Iglesia de San Felipe Neri on the corner of calles Perez and Azurduy • Mon-Fri
10am-noon & 3-5pm • Bs5
The seventeenth-century Iglesia de la Merced has an unremarkable exterior, but its interior
boasts some extravagant Baroque altarpieces smothered in gold leaf, one of which is thought
to be the oldest in Bolivia; the elaborately carved wooden pulpit and altar are also very beau-
tiful. Climb the bell tower for stunning views over the city.
Museo Universitario Charcas
A block east of the Iglesia de la Merced on the corner of calles Dalence and Bolívar • Mon-Fri 8.30am-noon &
2.30-6pm, Sat 9am-noon & 3-6pm • Bs15
Housed in a delightful seventeenth-century mansion, the rambling but worthwhile Museo
Universitario Charcas is really four museums in one. It combines the university's arche-
ological, anthropological, colonial and modern art collections, all of which are set around a
series of colonial patios and surrounded by arched cloisters. Visits are by guided tour (mainly
in Spanish, though some guides speak a little English) only and last at least an hour.
The modern art collection is perhaps the least impressive of the four, comprising works by
local artists in derivative styles ranging from surrealism and abstract expressionism to social-
ist realism, all applied to local subjects. The colonial religious art collection is much more
substantial and includes some very fine works, though the subject matter - Christ, the Virgin,
and assorted saints and bishops - is repetitive, to say the least. Highlights include a whole
room full of pictures by the mestizo-Baroque master Melchor Pérez de Holguín and a finely
detailed bird's-eye view of Potosí painted in 1758 by Gaspar Miguel de Berrio. There's also
some beautiful colonial furniture on display, including decorative desks richly inlaid or delic-
atelycarvedwithimagesofflowersandanimals.The anthropology section isamishmashof
indigenouscostumesandartefactsfromalloverBolivia:Andeanmusicalinstruments;woven
vegetable-fibre clothes from the Amazon; lurid diablada masks from Oruro. The archeology
section comprises an extensive collection of artefacts - pottery, tools, weapons, some metal-
work, textile fragments - from all the major Andean civilizations.
Museo-Convento Santa Clara
Corner of Calvo and Bolívar • Mon-Fri 2-6pm, Sat 2-5.30pm • Bs15
If you still have an appetite for further colonial religious art after visiting the university and
cathedral museums, it's worth making a trip to the Museo-Convento Santa Clara . This still-
functioning nunnery has a range of fairly standard colonial religious pictures, most of them
painted by anonymous indigenous artists in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well
as some antique furniture and religious vestments; you can also see the church's Neoclassical
interior, most notable for its seventeenth-century organ.
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