🌎 🇧🇴 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Historic City of Sucre in Bolivia

Bolivia in central South America is one of our homeschool countries-of-the-week, so why not spend a few minutes today learning about one of Bolivia’s World Heritage Sites: the Historic City of Sucre.

Sucre is the constitutional capital of modern Bolivia, but its historic core is built around the earliest sixteenth-century Spanish settlements in the region:

The Historic City of Sucre, located in the foothills of the Sica Sica and Churuquella mountains in central-south Bolivia, is an excellent, intact and well-preserved illustration of the architectural blending achieved in Latin America through the assimilation of local traditions and styles imported from Europe. Founded by the Spanish in 1538 as Ciudad de la Plata de la Nueva Toledo (Silver Town of New Toledo) on the lands of the Yampara, the indigenous culture of the Characas confederation, La Plata was for many years the judicial, religious and cultural centre of the region. The city was renamed in honour of the deceased leader of the fight for Independence, Antonio Jose de Sucre in 1839, when it was declared the first capital of Bolivia.

The historic city was designed according to a simple urban plan with checkerboard-patterned streets, similar to other towns founded by the Spanish in America in the 16th century. The mineral wealth of the nearby city of Potosi influenced the economic development of La Plata that was also an important cultural centre (University of Saint-Francois-Xavier, the Royal Academia Carolina, and San Isabel de Hungria Seminario) and the seat of the Characas Audiencia, forerunner of the present Supreme Court. In 1609, the city became the seat of an archbishopric and during the 17th century La Plata served as a religious centre for the Spanish eastern territories.

Many religious buildings located on the 113.76 ha of the historic centre of the city bear witness to the period that marked the beginnings of the Spanish city, including churches dating back to the 16th century, such as San Lázaro, San Francisco, Santo Domingo, and the Metropolitan Cathedral, the construction of which began in 1559 and was completed 250 years later. The Casa de la Libertad (House of Freedom), constructed in 1621 as part of the Convent of the Jesuits, is considered to be the most important historic monument of Bolivia because it was here where the events leading to the independence of the country took place. The buildings of the 18th century are characteristic of the local architecture and similar to those built during the same period at Potosi. The more recent buildings (late 18th century and early 19th century) retained the patios that characterized earlier times but were adapted to the Neoclassical style imported from metropolitan Spain. The buildings of Sucre illustrate eloquently the blending of local architectural traditions and styles imported from Europe, including those at the beginning of the Renaissance, Mudejar, Gothic, Baroque, and Neoclassical periods, between the 16th and 19th centuries. (World Heritage Centre #566)

You can find a gallery of additional photos of the Historic City of Sucre on the World Heritage Centre’s website.

World Heritage Sites are cultural or natural landmarks of international significance, selected by their home countries and recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. More than a thousand such sites have been designated in over 160 countries, and we feature one every Wednesday, drawn from one of our homeschool countries-of-the-week. You can find a complete list of World Heritage Sites online at the World Heritage Centre’s website and in Wikipedia.

The World Heritage Centre also has a free and comprehensive World Heritage education kit for teachers, as well as a wonderful full-color wall map of World Heritage Sites, available for the cost of shipping. Why not add them both to your own homeschool library. 🗺

What world treasures are you and your students exploring in your homeschool this Cygnus Term? 😊

❡ The great globe itself: This is one of our regular Homeschool Geography posts featuring cultural and natural sites of international importance. Print your own copy of our River Houses World Heritage Calendar and follow along with us as we tour the planet, and add your name to our weekly mailing list to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🌐

❡ Print this little lesson: Down at the bottom of this post you’ll find a special “Print” button that will let you create a neat and easy-to-read copy of this little lesson, and it will even let you edit and delete sections you don’t want or need (such as individual images or footnotes). Give it a try today! 🖨

❡ Books in the running brooks: You can always turn to your River Houses almanac, atlas, and history encyclopedia for more information about any of our countries-of-the-week. The almanac has a lengthy section with detailed profiles of all the nations of the world; the endpapers of the atlas are indexes that will show you where all of the individual national and regional maps may be found; the history encyclopedia has a comprehensive collection of national histories in an appendix; and you can find additional illustrations, flags, and other mentions through the indexes in each of these volumes. For an ideal little lesson, just write the name of the Weekly World Heritage Site on your homeschool bulletin board, find its location in your atlas, read the WHC’s brief description aloud, look at a picture or two, and you’re done. Over the course of the year, without even realizing it, your students will absorb a wealth of new historical, geographical, and cultural information. 🇧🇴

❡ Homeschool calendars: We have a whole collection of free, printable, educational homeschool calendars and planners available on our main River Houses calendar page. They will help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. Give them a try today! 🗓

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❡ Join us! The aim of the River Houses project is to create a network of friendly local homeschool support groups — local chapters that we call “Houses.” Our first at-large chapter, Headwaters House, is now forming and is open to homeschoolers everywhere. Find out how to become one of our founding members on the Headwaters House membership page. 🏡