SUCRE, or Chiquisaca, a city of Bolivia, capital of the department of Chuquisaca and nominal capital of the republic, 46 m. N.E. of Potosi in 19° 2′ 45″ S., 65° 17′ W. Pop. (1900), 20,967; (1906, estimate), 23,416, of whom many are Indians and cholos. The city is in an elevated valley opening southward on the narrow ravine through which flows the Cachimayo, the principal northern tributary of the Pilcomayo. Its elevation, 8839 ft., gives it an exceptionally agreeable climate. There are fertile valleys in the vicinity which provide the city’s markets with fruit and vegetables, while the vineyards of Camargo (formerly known as Cinti), in the southern part of the department, supply wine and spirits of excellent quality. The city is laid out regularly, with broad streets, a large central plaza and a public garden, or promenade, called the prado. Among its buildings are the cathedral, dating from 1553 and once noted for its wealth; the president’s palace and halls of congress, which are no longer occupied as such by the national government; the cabildo, or town-hall; a mint dating from 1572; the courts of justice, and the university of San Xavier, founded in 1624, with faculties of law, medicine and theology. There is a pretty chapel called the “Rotunda,” erected in 1852 at the lower end of the prado by President Belzú, on the spot where an attempt had been made to assassinate him. Sucre is the seat of the archbishop of La Plata and Charcas, the primate of Bolivia. It is not a commercial town, and its only noteworthy manufacture is the “clay dumplings” which are eaten with potatoes by the inhabitants of the Bolivian uplands. Although the capital of Bolivia, Sucre is one of its most isolated towns because of the difficult character of the roads leading to it. It is reached from the Pacific by way of Challapata, a station on the Antofagasta & Oruro railway.
The Spanish town, according to Velasco, was founded in 1538 by Captain Pedro Angules on the site of an Indian village called Chuquisaca, or Chuquichaca (golden bridge), and was called Charcas and Ciudad de la Plata by the Spaniards, though the natives clung to the original Indian name. It became the capital of the province of Charcas, of the comarca of Chuquisaca, and of the bishopric of La Plata and Charcas, and in time it became the favourite residence and health resort of the rich mine-owners of Potosi. The bishopric dates from 1552 and the archbishopric from 1609. In the latter year was created the Real Audiencia de la Plata y Charcas, a royal court of justice having jurisdiction over Upper Peru and the La Plata provinces of that time. Sucre was the first city of Spanish South America to revolt against Spanish rule—on the 25th of May 1809. In 1840 the name Sucre was adopted in honour of the patriot commander who won the last decisive battle of the war, and then became the first president of Bolivia. The city has suffered much from partisan strife, and the removal of the government to La Paz greatly diminished its importance.