Free Walking Tour La Paz: Plazas, Markets, Killi Killi

Your La Paz Walking Tour, Stop by Stop: Old Town, Markets, Viewpoint

1. 1

   Plaza Murillo

   

   Stand in the middle of Plaza Murillo and turn slowly: this is the open space most closely tied to Bolivia's political life. Around you rise the Palacio Quemado, the Casa Grande del Pueblo, the Plurinational Legislative Assembly and the cathedral. The square lies in the Casco Viejo, the old town, framed by Socabaya, Ayacucho and Comercio streets and the continuation of Ingavi Street.

   It began in 1558, when Juan Gutiérrez Paniagua, appointed by Corregidor Ignacio de Aranda, laid out the straight grid of La Paz on the north bank of the Choqueyapu River. Across the river stood the existing Spanish settlement of about 200 Spaniards and some 5,000 tributary indigenous residents, and its older square, today's Plaza Alonso de Mendoza, quickly lost its role to this new Plaza Mayor. Around it went up the Cabildo with its jail, a Jesuit building, the cathedral, the Royal Treasury and the Bishop's Residence.

   The name changed with the rulers: Plaza Mayor, then Plaza de Armas in colonial times, and after independence the name of Pedro Domingo Murillo, captured and hanged by Spanish troops in January 1810. He was not the only one. Juan Antonio Figueroa, Basilio Catacora, Buenaventura Bueno, Melchor Jiménez, Mariano Graneros, Apolinar Jaén, Gregorio García Lanza, Juan Bautista Sagárnaga, Juan Cordero and Simona Manzaneda were all killed on or near this square. Two of them, Sagárnaga and Jaén, give their names to streets on this walk.

   Power was fought over here again and again: in 1809, 1811, 1814, 1862, 1865, 1871, 1898, 1946, 1952 and 2002. The square is free and open around the clock, so take your time with the facades. Then cross 180 m, about 3 minutes, to the cathedral, passing the Museo Nacional de Arte on the way.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Plaza Murillo on Google Maps ↗

2. 2

   Catedral Basílica de Nuestra Señora de La Paz

   

   The Catedral Basílica de Nuestra Señora de La Paz looks like a temple from antiquity: a neoclassical front in which a large green metal door, flanked by two smaller ones, is framed by Corinthian columns. It is the seat of the Archdiocese of La Paz and shares the square with the Bishop's Residence, the government palace and Congress. Notice how it sits on the edge of the hill: the ground falls 12 metres from the entrance on the square to the end of the choir.

   This is the second cathedral on the site. Work on its predecessor began in 1622 and took 70 years; by the early 19th century the cracks in its walls had grown so wide that it was closed in 1831 and torn down completely. The new building was begun on 24 March 1835 under President Andrés de Santa Cruz, who now lies buried in one of its chapels. To pay for it, the department raised special taxes of 30,000 pesos a year.

   Progress was slow. The cathedral was consecrated in 1925 for the hundredth anniversary of the Republic, the furnishings took until 1932, and Pope Pius XII named it a minor basilica in 1948. The two side towers with their domes were only finished in 1989, prompted by the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1988. Pope Francis came in 2015.

   Inside you find five naves, a high crossing dome, thick columns, massive walls and tall ceilings. The decoration is rather plain and the main altar of Italian marble is modest, so go in for the scale and the calm rather than for treasures. It is an active church with no admission fee, and a quarter of an hour is enough for most visitors. From here it is 930 m, about 13 minutes, to the Plaza Mayor de San Francisco.

   Hours

   Daily: 08:00–20:00

   Price

   Free (active religious temple, no admission)

   Location

   Catedral Basílica de Nuestra Señora de La Paz on Google Maps ↗

3. 3

   Plaza Mayor de San Francisco

   

   The Plaza Mayor de San Francisco is really an urban atrium, the open forecourt spread out in front of the Basílica de San Francisco and the Centro Cultural Museo San Francisco. It is free and open at all hours, and it ties the second part of the walk together: church, museum and market quarter all meet here.

   The ground is older than the church. When the foundations for the current Mercado Lanza were dug, pottery fragments turned up, and given how close the spot lay to the houses of the cacique Quirquinchu, to pre-Hispanic settlements and to the river, this is believed to have been an Aymara ritual space. As was the custom of the time, the Catholic church was built on top of it.

   The square goes back to 1549 and grew up with the church whose name it carries. Some historians date it a year after Captain Alonso de Mendoza founded La Paz; others think it was a religious site set up even earlier by the first Spanish families living here. Either way, it was the first or second church of the city. The Franciscan complex once covered two full city blocks, with a seminary, today's museum and its crypt, the Colegio San Francisco and other buildings of the order.

   This was the district called the Pueblo de Indios, and for centuries many Aymara followed Mass from the atrium rather than inside. Over time the square was reshaped, sometimes on purpose, sometimes as a side effect of the city growing around it. The basilica's door is only 110 m away, a two minute walk.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Plaza Mayor de San Francisco on Google Maps ↗

4. 4

   Basílica de San Francisco

   

   The Basílica de San Francisco is the building to look at closely in this part of town. Dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi, it was built between the 16th and 18th centuries in the style known as mestizo baroque. The carving of its facade was finished in 1790; its single tower only began to rise in 1885.

   The Franciscan convent is the oldest religious house recorded in the city, mentioned in 1547, before La Paz was founded in 1548, though most texts settle on 1548. In 1549 Fray Francisco de Morales, said to be one of the first twelve friars in the region, and Fray Alcocer founded it as the Convento de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles, outside the Spanish grid. Its land reached from today's square to the Choqueyapu River, the line that divided the Spanish city from the indigenous one, and to the present streets Illampu, Sagárnaga and Graneros.

   The first church, begun in August 1549 and completed in 1581, collapsed sometime between 1608 and 1612 under a heavy snowfall. The church you see was started in 1743 or 1744, and its crossing dome was closed and roofed in 1753, with the corregidor Vicente Lafita among the main benefactors. Bishop Campos consecrated it on 23 April 1784, and it became a minor basilica in 1948. Between 1950 and 1960 part of the convent was demolished for Avenida Mariscal Santa Cruz and the atrium was redrawn.

   Is it worth going in? If you pay for one visit on this walk, make it this one, especially if colonial art and history draw you. The Centro Cultural Museo San Francisco charges admission. The church itself opens for worship during services. Allow about 45 minutes, then walk 220 m, about 5 minutes, to Calle Sagárnaga, passing the Museo de la Coca.

   Hours

   Mon–Sat 09:00–18:00, Sun closed (Museum); Church open for worship during services

   Price

   Bs 20 foreigners / Bs 10 nationals / Bs 5 children & seniors; under-14 free (Centro Cultural Museo San Francisco)

   Website

   museosanfranciscobolivia.com ↗

   Location

   Basílica de San Francisco on Google Maps ↗

5. 5

   Calle Sagárnaga

   

   Calle Sagárnaga is a public market street in the San Sebastián neighbourhood of the central district, free to walk at any hour. It carries the name of Juan Bautista Sagárnaga, a hero of the La Paz revolution whom you already met among the martyrs of Plaza Murillo. The street belongs to the first European-style grid laid out after the city's founding, the chessboard pattern the Spaniards used for their planned towns in the Americas.

   Its first chapter is a hospital. On 25 May 1555 the Cabildo under Corregidor Juan Remón decided to found a hospital and cemetery on a plot beside the San Francisco convent, between the houses of Juan de Lorenza and of Teresa de Tapia y de La Cerda. Neighbours contributed generously, and the hospital was placed under Saint John the Evangelist. The city ran it until 1629, when the first Brothers Hospitallers of San Juan de Dios arrived and took charge, with the Cabildo paying 2,000 pesos a year for medicines and upkeep. So the street became known as the calle del hospital.

   By the early 1660s hospital and cemetery were too small for the growing town. On 5 July 1663 the brothers bought a new plot from Gonzales de Vega for 860 pesos, and Vega donated the one next to it. There they built the new hospital and cemetery, a convent and the church of San Juan de Dios, which still stands on today's Calle Loayza.

   As you walk, look past the stalls at the line of the street itself: it is one of the original strands of that colonial grid. From here the route runs 1,260 m, about 23 minutes, to the Witches' Market.

   Hours

   Open 24/7 (public market street)

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Calle Sagárnaga on Google Maps ↗

6. 6

   Mercado de las Brujas (Witches' Market)

   

   At the Mercado de las Brujas (Witches' Market), centred on Calle Linares in the El Rosario neighbourhood and spilling into Jiménez, Santa Cruz and Illampu streets, the stalls hold potions, dried frogs, medicinal plants such as retama and armadillos used in Bolivian rituals. The name itself was chosen so that the many foreign visitors could recognise the place; it is also called La Hechicería.

   Most of the goods are sold by Aymara women known as chifreras, while the market is run by yatiri, local healers who also tell fortunes and work love magic and curses. You recognise a yatiri by the black hat and the coca pouch holding amulets, talismans and powders that promise luck, beauty and fertility.

   The item everyone stares at is the sullu, a dried llama fetus. Sullus are buried under the foundations of many Bolivian houses as a sacred offering to the goddess Pachamama. These rituals mostly take place in October, the market's busiest month, when locals say around 60 percent of the year's sales are made; February, with Carnival, is the other big month. Most rituals have been adapted to city life, a legacy of colonialism in Bolivia.

   In 2019 the market was declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of La Paz. Walking through is free and buying is up to you. The next leg is the longest of the tour, 2,000 m and about 28 minutes to Mercado Lanza, passing Plaza Alonso de Mendoza, the Spaniards' first main square, and the Museo Tambo Quirquincho.

   Hours

   Open 24/7 (street accessible 24/7; market stalls typically open daily approx. 09:00–19:00)

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Mercado de las Brujas (Witches' Market) on Google Maps ↗

7. 7

   Mercado Lanza

   

   Mercado Lanza is where La Paz shops and meets: a modern hall near the corner of Calle Lanza and Avenida Mariscal Santa Cruz, the avenue that cost the Franciscans part of their convent. It has four entrances, one of them raised, reached over the Pasarela Pérez Velasco footbridge, another from Calle Evaristo Valle and one from Calle Figueroa.

   Its roots go back to the tambos that worked around the San Francisco church in colonial times. The first market building opened in 1937, paid for by selling hides that the meat traders handed over to the city. The name honours the Lanza regiment, in which several of the vendors served during the Chaco War.

   The building you enter today went up between 2008 and 2010 to house more than 1,000 traders from the old market and the streets around it. In January 2008 the city agreed with the last groups of vendors to move into temporary stalls on nearby streets during construction. Handover was planned for November 2009, slipped to February 2010 for extra works and services, and the market finally opened in July 2010 under mayor Luis Revilla. It has four levels and 1,050 stalls.

   Entry is free, though each stall keeps its own hours; you pay only for the food or goods you buy, which makes it a good point on the route for something to eat. Continue 870 m, about 15 minutes, to Calle Jaén, passing the Museo Nacional de Etnografía y Folklore, the Teatro municipal Alberto Saavedra Pérez and the Museo de Instrumentos Musicales.

   Hours

   Daily 06:00–20:00 (varies by stall)

   Price

   Free entry (food and goods for purchase)

   Location

   Mercado Lanza on Google Maps ↗

8. 8

   Calle Jaén

   

   Calle Jaén is only 100 metres long, yet no street in La Paz holds more museums, municipal and private, among them the house of Pedro Domingo Murillo. It runs from Avenida Sucre to Calle Indaburo, with cobblestones and balconied colonial houses, and between the museums you find bars, cafés and shops. The city has declared it historic, architectural and urban heritage.

   In the 16th century this was a market for buying and selling camelids, which is why it was once called Cabracancha. Today it honours Apolinar Jaén, one of the first martyrs of the 1809 revolution in La Paz and another of the men killed around Plaza Murillo. Being so close to the main square, it was one of the first streets traced in the grid, and it is marked on the city's first official plan of 1796, drawn up for street lighting.

   In 1781, during the siege of La Paz, the Spanish city built the Fuerte San Miguel half a block from here, along with a bridge over the Humauaca river. A painting of the siege by Florentino Olivares shows how the city defended itself against the Aymara attacks: walls along the edge of the slope in the north and towards the Mejahuira river, backed by small artillery forts on the main streets leading to the indigenous parishes.

   The street is free at any hour; the museums keep their own opening times and charge their own admission, so check at each door if one tempts you. Then comes the last leg, 1,250 m and about 20 minutes up to the Mirador de Killi Killi, past the Museo de Metales Preciosos Precolombinos, the Museo casa de Murillo, the Museo Litoral Boliviano and the Museo costumbrista Juan de Vargas.

   Hours

   Open 24/7 (street; individual museums keep their own hours)

   Price

   Free (public street; museums charge separately)

   Location

   Calle Jaén on Google Maps ↗

9. 9

   Mirador de Killi Killi

   

   The Mirador de Killi Killi, known locally as Mirador Kili Kili, crowns the Villa Pabón neighbourhood on Cerro Santa Bárbara. From here you get a 360° panorama over La Paz and the mountain Huayna Potosí. The name comes from the local word for the American kestrel, Falco sparverius, the small bird of prey that lives in the area.

   Like many hills around the city, Cerro Santa Bárbara has been a ceremonial place since pre-Hispanic times, one of the wakas and apachetas where people make wajt'as, offerings to the deities of the Andes. It is the same world of belief you met at the Witches' Market, here in the open air.

   In 1781 the hill served as headquarters for the indigenous forces led by Tupac Katari during the siege of the city, the same siege the Fuerte San Miguel near Calle Jaén was built against. After his sentence, part of Katari's quartered body was displayed here, a warning from the colonial authorities about the price of rebellion.

   Look for the carved stone arch: Agustín Callizaya cut it in the early 1920s for a house near Plaza Isabel la Católica in Sopocachi, and it was moved here when that house was demolished. The park is free and open around the clock. This is where the walk ends; if you want to return to Plaza Murillo, the GPS navigation in your browser leads you back.

   Local name

   Mirador Kili Kili

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Mirador de Killi Killi on Google Maps ↗

Shorter Ways to Walk La Paz

Every stop works as a starting point. If your time is limited, these three sections stand on their own.

Old town and San Francisco

Stops: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

For a first morning in the city: the political square, the cathedral and the Franciscan quarter, ending on Calle Sagárnaga. Walking time is 23 minutes. The only admission is the San Francisco museum, so choose a day when it is open.

Markets and rituals

Stops: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

For travellers drawn to living traditions: from the old Aymara ritual ground in front of San Francisco through the market street and the Witches' Market to Mercado Lanza. Walking time is 58 minutes; everything is free unless you add the San Francisco museum.

Museum street and viewpoint

Stops: 7, 8, 9

For an afternoon: from Mercado Lanza to Calle Jaén and up to the Mirador de Killi Killi. Walking time is 35 minutes. The walk and the viewpoint are free; the museums on Calle Jaén charge their own admission.

How Long Does the La Paz Walk Take With Museum and Markets?

Pure walking time is 1 h 48 min. Add about 45 minutes for the museum at San Francisco, a quarter of an hour each for Plaza Murillo and the cathedral, half an hour at Mercado Lanza and twenty minutes each at the Witches' Market, Calle Jaén and the viewpoint, and you arrive at roughly five hours.

A sample day: start at Plaza Murillo at 09:30, step into the cathedral just before 10:00, reach the Basílica de San Francisco around 10:25 and leave the museum shortly after 11:00. You are at the Witches' Market before noon, at Mercado Lanza around 12:35 for something to eat, on Calle Jaén around 13:20 and at Killi Killi at about 14:00.

With the same pace for the visits, the old town section takes about two hours, the markets section just under three hours and the museum street with the viewpoint about an hour and three quarters.

Before You Set Off in La Paz

• Start and finish: The recommended start is Plaza Murillo, the finish is the Mirador de Killi Killi. You can join at any stop. From the viewpoint, the GPS navigation in your browser leads you back to Plaza Murillo if you wish.
• Best day and time: Walk on a day when the San Francisco museum is open. A morning start brings you to the museum after it opens and to the Witches' Market while the stalls are trading.
• What it costs: Squares, streets, the cathedral, both markets and the viewpoint are free. You pay for the San Francisco museum and, if you choose, the museums on Calle Jaén. The GPS route is free; the AI Tour Guide starts with 100 free credits, after which you choose between this tour all-inclusive for €19.99 with no time limit or credits at €5 per hour.

Common Questions About Walking La Paz