The capital of Bolivia is Sucre, named as the national capital in the 2009 Constitution, although the president, the legislature and the electoral authority all sit in La Paz, which serves as the seat of government. Sucre lies in the valleys of south-central Bolivia at about 2,790 metres above sea level, is the capital of Chuquisaca Department, and counted 296,125 inhabitants in the 2024 census, making it the country’s sixth most populous city. It keeps the judiciary, including the Supreme Court and the Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal, and its whitewashed colonial centre has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991. The split dates from a civil war in 1898–99, and the city’s history makes most sense when followed through four threads: power, faith, trade and everyday life.
Casa de la Libertad and the Capital That Lost Its Government to La Paz
Sucre has been a seat of power since the 16th century. The Spanish founded it on 30 November 1538 as Ciudad de la Plata de la Nueva Toledo, on the site of the Inca provincial town of Chuquisaca, and on 4 September 1559 Philip II made it the seat of the Real Audiencia of Charcas. That royal court governed a territory that covered most of modern Bolivia along with Paraguay, northern Argentina and Uruguay, and it oversaw the silver of Potosí. It answered to the Viceroyalty of Peru until 1776, when it passed to the new Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata.
Independence was proclaimed in the same city. On 6 August 1825 a new state was declared, named for Simón Bolívar, and the founding took place in the Casa de la Libertad, a building of 1621 whose Salón de la Independencia still holds the Bolivian declaration of independence. The city became provisional capital in July 1826, the Supreme Court was established there on 16 July 1827, and on 12 July 1839 President José Miguel de Velasco signed a law confirming it as the capital and renaming it after Antonio José de Sucre, the general who had won the Battle of Ayacucho in 1824. The young state’s institutions followed: the National Library, established in the year the republic was founded and still holding documents from the 16th century, and a Palace of Government, completed in 1896, that housed the presidency until the move north and is now the seat of the Chuquisaca departmental government.
The move away came with the end of the silver age. As the exhausted mines of Potosí gave way to tin mining around Oruro, economic and political weight shifted north to La Paz. In the Federal War of 1898–99 a liberal, federalist faction defeated the conservative, unitarist government, and the outcome included an attempted move of the capital from Sucre to La Paz. The executive and legislature settled in La Paz, which became the de facto seat of government, while Sucre kept the title of capital and the courts. The judicial role has since been given grand buildings: the present neoclassical Supreme Court was inaugurated on 25 May 1945, and the seven-member Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal created by the 2009 Constitution first sat in Sucre on 2 January 2012.
The arrangement is still contested. When the Constituent Assembly that wrote the new constitution met in Sucre from August 2006, local leaders demanded capitalía plena, the return of every branch of government. The governing party blocked debate on 15 August 2007, a civic strike and hunger strike followed, and clashes in the city forced the assembly to suspend its sessions; in December 2007 it moved to Oruro to approve the text. The 2009 Constitution confirms Sucre as the capital, while the executive, legislature and electoral authority remain in La Paz.
The Metropolitan Cathedral, the Bell of San Francisco and La Recoleta
If La Paz took the government, Sucre kept the Church. An archbishopric was created there in 1609, and the city remains the seat of the Roman Catholic Church in Bolivia. Members of religious orders in their habits are a common sight in the streets, and the colonial centre is dense with churches and convents: San Felipe Neri, Santa Teresa, Santa Clara, Santo Domingo, La Merced, San Agustín and San Lázaro, considered the oldest church in the country and the city’s first cathedral.
Its successor, the Metropolitan Cathedral on the main square, was built between 1559 and 1712. Its museum, the Museo Catedralicio, is regarded as the country’s most important religious collection, with paintings by colonial masters and European artists including Bernardo Bitti, and a large treasury of gold, silver and gemstone liturgical objects. The Archbishop’s Palace next to it dates from 1609.
Faith and politics met at the Basilica of San Francisco. On 25 May 1809 its bell was rung until it cracked to signal the Chuquisaca Revolution, in which the Audiencia, backed by professors of the university, deposed the Spanish governor and formed a junta. Bolivians call it the “First Cry of Freedom” in Latin America, and the damaged bell is still kept in the basilica. The university itself, founded in 1624 as the Royal and Pontifical University of San Francisco Xavier, was where the news of Ferdinand VII’s capture by Napoleon was debated, and where Bernardo de Monteagudo set out the argument for self-determination later known as the “syllogism of Chuquisaca”.
Above the city on a hillside stands La Recoleta, a Franciscan monastery founded at the turn of the 17th century. Its arcaded viewpoint looks back across the white roofs and church towers of the centre toward the surrounding mountains.
Potosí Silver, Chuquisaca Chocolate and the Cal Orck’o Quarry
The city’s first names are about money. The Quechua name Chuquisaca is usually read as “heap of silver” or “abundance of precious metal”, and the Spanish called it La Plata, “silver”. Its fortune was tied to Potosí, to the south-west, where the Cerro Rico was discovered in 1545 and became the main source of silver for the Spanish Empire; at the turn of the 17th century Potosí was one of the largest cities in the world. Potosí’s mining town sat at more than 4,000 metres in a cold, harsh climate, and wealthy silver families preferred to live in Sucre, over a thousand metres lower and far milder.
As Potosí’s silver mines were exhausted, Sucre lost the wealth that had built it, and after 1899 it lost the executive and legislature as well. Today its economy is modest and local. Sucre is known across Bolivia for chocolate, made by firms such as Chocolates Para Ti and Chocolates Taboada, and the city also makes beer, dairy products, sausages and hats. The Mercado Campesino is its largest market, and tourism, government offices and the university all provide work.
One industrial site has become the city’s most unusual attraction. A limestone quarry at Cal Orck’o, about 4.4 kilometres north-west of the city, has exposed a near-vertical wall of about 65,000 square metres covered in dinosaur footprints from the late Cretaceous, in the rocks of the El Molino Formation. Mapping between 1998 and 2015 recorded 12,092 individual tracks in 465 trackways left by theropods, ornithopods, ankylosaurs and sauropods, belonging to nine different track types. Cement remains one of the city’s main industries, led by FANCESA, the National Cement Factory.
La Ciudad Blanca: Four Names, White Walls and Chicha Criolla
Sucre is often called “the city of four names”: Charcas for the indigenous people of the region, La Plata for the colonial city, Chuquisaca for the independence era, and Sucre for the republic. A fifth nickname describes what visitors see first. La Ciudad Blanca, “the White City”, refers to the whitewashed walls of its colonial and republican houses, laid out on a grid of narrow streets whose great houses, convents and churches reflect the Andalusian architecture of their builders.
Life there is shaped by its setting in the inter-Andean valleys, between the Altiplano to the west and the Chaco lowlands to the east, at the foot of the Sica Sica and Churuquella hills. The subtropical highland climate is mild all year, with rain mostly in summer thunderstorms, and the city has a reputation for low crime that attracts both Bolivians and foreigners. The university brings students from across the country, keeping the centre young. Football is followed closely: Universitario de Sucre won the national championship in 2008 and 2014, and the Estadio Olímpico Patria is one of the largest stadiums in Bolivia. The city also hosted the 16th Bolivarian Games, the regional multi-sport event for the countries liberated by Bolívar.
Much of Sucre’s culture is its own. Local composers such as Simeón Roncal helped shape the Bolivian cueca, and the bailecito dance grew up in the city’s bars and chicherías among student ensembles. The kitchen is seasonal: mondongo for All Saints’ Day, picana at Christmas, and all year chorizos chuquisaqueños, picante de pollo and cazuela de maní, washed down with chicha criolla. Alcantarí International Airport, about 30 kilometres from the city, links it with La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba, and Route 5 runs south-west to Potosí.
Bolivia is not the only country that divides its capital functions between cities; our list of countries with multiple capitals sets it alongside South Africa and others. For how Sucre’s altitude compares with Quito and La Paz, see the highest capital cities in the world, and for the rest of the country, from the Altiplano to the Amazon, start with our Bolivia country guide.
Quick Facts About Sucre
- Country: Bolivia
- Continent: South America
- Country population: approximately 12.7 million
- Capital city status: Sucre is the capital of Bolivia, the seat of national government, and the location of foreign embassies, parliament, and the head of state's official residence.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the capital of Bolivia?
The capital of Bolivia is Sucre. Sucre is the seat of national government, hosts most foreign embassies and consulates, and is typically where the head of state and parliament are located.
What continent is Sucre in?
Sucre, the capital of Bolivia, is located in South America. As Bolivia's capital, Sucre serves as the country's primary connection to the broader South American political, economic, and cultural sphere.
Why is Sucre the capital of Bolivia?
Sucre was chosen as the capital of Bolivia for reasons that typically combine geography, history, and politics. Capital city selections often reflect a desire for centrality (being accessible from across the country), historical importance (being a longstanding seat of government or culture), or neutrality (being acceptable to multiple regions or ethnic groups within the country). The specific reasons for Sucre's designation are detailed in the city's history above.
What is Sucre known for?
As the capital of Bolivia, Sucre is best known for housing the country's central government institutions — parliament, presidential or royal residences, supreme court, and key ministries. It is also typically a major cultural and economic center within Bolivia, hosting national museums, embassies, and signature monuments. The introduction and history sections above provide detailed coverage of the city's specific notable institutions and landmarks.
Related Pages
- Bolivia Country Guide — full geography, climate, economy, and culture overview
- Flag of Bolivia — meaning, history, and design of Bolivia's national flag