The Palace of Justice is the seat of Bolivia's Supreme Court and the constitutional symbol of Sucre's status as the country's "judicial" capital — a status it clings to ever since La Paz took the executive and legislative branches after the civil war of 1899. The current building was completed in 1925 for the centenary of Bolivian independence and is a grandiose neoclassical pile, all white columns and pediments, set on a small plaza opposite Parque Bolívar.
Visitors are not allowed into the courtrooms but you can climb the front steps for a look at the entrance hall, which features marble floors, a sweeping double staircase, and oil portraits of past chief justices. The building anchors a small cluster of judicial offices and law firms in the streets immediately around it.