The Basilica de San Francisco stands at the lower end of Calle Sagarnaga, where the market district tips down toward the city centre. The facade is the thing to look at first: carved stone that seems to overflow its frame, packed with detail that repays close attention. You will find European cherubs and saints, but also what looks like corn, passion fruit, tropical birds, and human faces that are unmistakably Andean. This mixing was deliberate and meaningful — the indigenous artisans who built the church inserted their own world into the fabric of the colonial church, and left it there for three hundred years.
The church is still in active use by the Franciscan order, but the complex around it has been opened to visitors. Below the church are catacombs that were used as burial chambers from the colonial period into the 19th century — the tunnels are dim and low and genuinely atmospheric, not sanitised for tourists. Alongside the church, a museum houses colonial religious art from the region: paintings, sculpture, vestments, and devotional objects that show how thoroughly indigenous and European traditions were interwoven in Bolivian religious culture. The museum entrance is on the side street off the plaza; there is a small admission charge.