Plaza Bolívar is the geographical and ceremonial heart of old Valencia. Laid out in the early colonial period as the plaza mayor, it took its present form in the nineteenth century, when the colonial buildings around it were replaced and a bronze equestrian Bolívar — by the sculptor Adamo Tadolini — was set in the centre. The surrounding palms and ornamental ironwork are typical of the period.
The plaza is bordered by the cathedral on one side and government buildings on the others, including the Casa de la Estrella — the assembly building where the Constituent Congress of 1830 declared Venezuela's separation from Gran Colombia. Office workers cross it at lunchtime, retirees feed pigeons in the afternoon, and on a free Sunday morning a brass band sometimes plays from the bandstand. The simplest introduction to Valencia is to sit on a bench here for half an hour and watch the city pass.