Ciudad Bolívar's historic quarter on foot

Ciudad Bolívar keeps one of the best-preserved historic quarters in Venezuela. In 2003 it entered UNESCO's tentative World Heritage list as "Ciudad Bolívar en la Angostura del Orinoco", recognising its colonial architecture and its setting on the river.

You can walk it in a morning. Start early: the heat builds by midday.

The Historic Quadrangle

This is the heart of the city, five pieces around the Plaza Mayor:

• The Plaza Mayor
• The Cathedral
• The Governors' House
• The Royal Intendancy House
• The Congress of Angostura House

In that last building, on 15 February 1819, Simón Bolívar inaugurated the Congress of Angostura, the republic's second constituent congress. Few squares in the Americas hold this much history in so little space.

The city that was called Angostura

The city was founded in 1595 and settled on its definitive site in 1764, at the narrowest point of the Orinoco, where the river shrinks to some 800 metres across. Hence the name it carried for more than eighty years — Angostura, "the narrows" — until it became Ciudad Bolívar in 1846.

Other stops on the walk

• The House of Twelve Windows. One of the most recognisable images of the old town.
• The Ciudad Bolívar Museum, in the colonial house where the *Correo del Orinoco*, official organ of the Congress of Angostura, was printed.
• Casa Museo de San Isidro. Here Bolívar wrote his Address to the Congress of Angostura in 1819.
• El Zamuro Fort and the Angostura Lookout, for views over the city and the river.
• The Old Jail, today home to the General Archive of Guayana.

The Paseo Orinoco and the Piedra del Medio

The city's riverfront promenade looks out at La Piedra del Medio, the rocky islet Alexander von Humboldt called the *Orinocometer*, because the water level against the rock marks the river's rise. Humboldt passed through Angostura in 1800.

The Jesús Soto Museum

The Jesús Soto Museum of Modern Art opened in 1973 and was the first museum in the world dedicated to kinetic art. It was designed by Carlos Raúl Villanueva, architect of the Central University of Venezuela campus, and carries the name of the master Jesús Rafael Soto, born in this city.

For many visitors, it is the surprise of the trip.

Before you set out

Opening hours for museums and historic houses change. Ask at our front desk before heading out and we will tell you what is open that day.

Hotel Laja City is on Avenida Bolívar at Avenida Táchira, with easy access to the historic quarter.