IGLESIA SAN JUAN BAUTISTA DE SUTIABA

Built between 1698 and 1710, it's worth a visit for its grandiose architecture overlooking an empty square, a gaping hole in a bygone colonial era. It's a moving construction, with its native (the interior arches) and Baroque (the façade, the columns) influences, immense as if to welcome the souls, the cries, the tears and the sins of the natives who once populated (and still populate in part) the Sutiaba district, so close to and yet so different from the city center. Bartolomé de las Casas, eternal defender of the natives, preached here on several occasions (the square bears his name). The church is open mornings from 8.30am to 11.30am (except Thursdays) and evenings from 5.30pm to 7pm. Not far away, the San Pedro hermitage is another interesting place to visit. Built between 1706 and 1718, it is typical of the period (pretty colonial square renovated in 1986). You can also take a look at the Adiac museum, dedicated to indigenous culture (ceramics, statues): the natives manage their own heritage, a happy precedent for all the country's indigenous cultures. Open weekdays from 8am to 12pm and from 2pm to 5pm, Saturday mornings. Still in the Sutiaba district, you can visit the ruins of the Veracruz church. Built in the second half of the ^16th century, the church has been reduced to stone walls and terracotta bricks, which are still 5 m high. Some parts (presbytery wall, floors, columns) have been restored.