La Paz

La Paz was founded on 20 October 1548 by the Spanish captain Alonso de Mendoza, at the Inca settlement of Laja on the Altiplano, to mark the end of the civil wars among the conquistadors of Peru; its full name, Nuestra Señora de La Paz, means Our Lady of Peace. It was soon moved down into the sheltered valley of Chuquiago Marka, on the Choqueyapu River, where it became a connecting point on the trade routes from Potosí and Oruro to Lima. The colonial city grew around a grid of churches and squares.

In 1781 the Aymara leader Túpac Katari besieged the city for months before he was captured and executed, and in 1809 La Paz rose in one of the continent's first calls for self-government; its leader, Pedro Domingo Murillo, was hanged and is remembered in the name of the central square. After independence the city grew as a commercial centre, and in 1898 it became the de facto seat of government, while Sucre remained the constitutional capital.

The 20th century filled the canyon. Migrants from the countryside settled the plateau above, where El Alto became a separate city in 1985. The two cities were at the centre of the 2003 gas-war protests, and in 2014 the first lines of Mi Teleférico opened, linking canyon and rim by cable car. Today about 756,000 people live in the city, and some 2.2 million in the wider urban area.

Aymara culture runs deep in La Paz. The pollera skirt, shawl and bowler hat of the cholita are an everyday sight in its markets and offices. Andean ritual sits alongside Catholic practice: yatiri, traditional healers and diviners, work from the stalls of the Witches' Market, llama foetuses are buried under the foundations of new houses as offerings to Pachamama, and at the Alasitas fair in January people buy miniature houses, cars and banknotes to be blessed for the year ahead under the eye of Ekeko, the god of abundance.

Festivals are dance events on a huge scale. The Gran Poder parade, on the UNESCO intangible heritage list, sends tens of thousands of dancers in heavy embroidered costumes through the streets, with the Morenada's rattling and the brass bands carrying through the canyon. Folk music — panpipes, quena flutes and the charango — is played in peñas, small music restaurants, and the city has a strong painting tradition from the colonial masters in the national art museum to modern artists of Andean themes.

Football matters intensely: the rivalry between Bolívar and The Strongest, both based at the Hernando Siles stadium, divides families, and the altitude gives the national team a feared home ground. Paceños are reserved but courteous with strangers, value a proper greeting, and are proud of a city that holds the country's government and much of its political life.

About 756,000 people lived in La Paz at the 2024 census, making it Bolivia's third-largest city, and the metropolitan area that includes El Alto and smaller towns has about 2.2 million. Altitude orders the social map: the more affluent districts lie lower in the canyon, Sopocachi and the high-rises near the centre house much of the middle class, and El Alto on the rim above has grown fast with migrants from the countryside.

The city lives on government, services and trade. Ministries, the legislature and the presidency employ thousands, while a vast informal economy of market stalls, street vendors and family businesses keeps the centre crowded from early morning; the Cervecería Boliviana Nacional, founded by German immigrants, is among the city's biggest companies. Days start early and cold, with api and pastries at street stalls, while cable cars and minibuses fill with commuters from El Alto.

Protest is part of the city's rhythm, because the seat of government is where marches converge. The end of fuel subsidies and the economic slump fed mass protests and road blockades that paralysed much of the country for more than 50 days in May and June 2026, and protests and roadblocks have continued to flare since.

Paceño cooking is highland food, built on potatoes, corn, broad beans and cheese. The plato paceño brings together corn on the cob, broad beans, potato and a slab of fried cheese; fricasé paceño is a spicy pork and hominy stew; and chairo is a thick soup of chuño — potatoes freeze-dried in the winter frosts — with meat and vegetables. Lunch is the main meal, often an almuerzo, a set menu of soup and a main course served in small restaurants and market stalls across the city.

Street food fills the gaps. Salteñas, baked pasties of slightly sweet dough filled with meat, potato and broth, are the mid-morning snack; the sandwich de chola, a roll filled with pork, pickled vegetables, tomato and quirquiña, is a Bolivian speciality; and anticuchos, skewers of beef heart, are another street favourite. Trout and the tiny fried fish called ispi come up from Lake Titicaca.

On cold mornings people drink api, a hot, sweet drink of morocho corn with cinnamon and milk, often with a fried sweet fritter called a buñuelo. Coca tea is offered everywhere to ease the altitude. Paceña, named after the city, is the leading beer, and singani, a white-grape brandy from the southern valleys, is the base of the chuflay.