• Originally called Plaza de San Francisco
  • 1756 – Fire destroyed the houses here
  • 1883 – The empty lot was named Bolívar Plaza in honour of the Venezuelan general Simon Bolívar, known as the “Liberator of Latin America” and respected as a hero
  • 1926 – A monument was placed in the middle of the plaza commemorating the 100th anniversary of Bolívar’s Amphictyonic Congress (homage to the Amphictyonic League of Ancient Greece), to coincide with the Pan American Congress of that year
  • The monument has decorative friezes marking events of his life, and an Andean condor perched above him

The Congress of Panama was organized by Simón Bolívar in 1826, urging the union of all Latin American countries. The meeting proposed creating a league of American republics, with a common military, a mutual defense pact, and a supranational parliamentary assembly.The proposal failed, but he did eventually succeed in liberating Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela from the Spanish, to create Gran Colombia which encompassed all these states.

 

Next: Palacio and Salon Bolívar