Otros Destinos Travellers | Page 38

Bolivia Plaza Murillo - Murillo Square Surrounded by the most important buildings of the city, in the historical center, this square is the busiest in the city. Its name is in honor of Murillo General, one of the heroes of the independence movement in Bolivia. This plaza was surrounded by eucalyptus trees and a statue of Neptune during colonial times, and it used to be the main source of water for the city. There is also the Palace of the Counts of Arana an eighteenth century building that is now the National Art Museum of La Paz. Nowadays it is the most centric place where we can find the neoclassical Cathedral, the Government Palace, which is known as the palace burned, because it has been burned eight times. Previously it was the city council. The Congress Palace used to be a convent, then became into a prison and later was converted into a university. As it has happened in many of the most emblematic squares of the capitals of the world, it has also been the scene of dramatic political battles, one of the most recent was in 1946 when President Gualberto Villarroel was attacked by a group of angry rebels who stabbed him and hung him on a lamp post in the square.