The Casa de la Libertad is the single most important historical building in Bolivia. It was here, in what was then the chapel of the Jesuit College, that the Act of Independence of Upper Peru was signed on 6 August 1825. The same hall later served as the country's first national congress. Standing in the empty room, you are looking at the place where Bolivia became Bolivia.
The museum that surrounds it is small but well organised. Rooms are arranged chronologically — colonial portraits of audiencia presidents, the bewigged grandees of La Plata, then the heroes and battle paintings of independence, finally the early republican relics including Bolívar's sword and a copy of the act itself signed by all the delegates. There is also the first Bolivian flag, a banner so worn it looks ready to dissolve under glass. Guided tours in Spanish are included with the modest entry fee and well worth taking — the guides are often history students from the local university and know the personalities behind each portrait.