Palacio Federal Legislativo

The Federal Legislative Palace — known to caraqueños as the Capitolio — occupies a full city block south-west of Plaza Bolívar. Built between 1872 and 1877 under the strongman president Antonio Guzmán Blanco, the building was meant to project the optimism of a young federal republic: neoclassical façade, French-inspired plan, a domed Salón Elíptico (oval hall) at the centre painted with murals of independence-era battles.

Today it houses the National Assembly. Public access is intermittent — when allowed, guided visits take in the Salón Elíptico, the central courtyard, and the chapel where Bolívar's mother was baptised when the site was still a convent. Check current rules before visiting; the building has been a flashpoint in recent political confrontations.

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The Salón Elíptico is dominated by Martín Tovar y Tovar's huge canvas *Battle of Carabobo* — a 1887 panorama of the 1821 battle that secured Venezuelan independence. The painting was so large the artist worked on it in Paris and shipped it in segments; one of them was lost overboard mid-Atlantic and had to be repainted from memory.

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