MUSEO Y CONVENTO DE SANTA CLARA

Founded in 1636 by María de Ceballos, the Santa Clara Monastery has a beautiful cloister, numerous cells, some outbuildings and, above all, a church with a single nave, extended by two choirs, the upper and lower.

The church, remodeled in 1920, has a neoclassical façade, admirable for its proportions. The simplification of monastic life due to the recent reforms of the councils led to the successive adaptation of the upper and lower choirs to transform them into a museum. A museum rich in the numerous works of art accumulated in the monastery over hundreds of years (paintings and sculptures by Gasar Miguel de Berrios). In the upper choir you can admire numerous paintings from the Charcas and Cuzco schools, baroque furniture, wooden sculptures, old books from the 16th to 18th centuries and sacred ornaments.

At the back of the room of the former upper choir, in the middle of the wall, there is a small window that looks into the interior of the church. This is the " puerta del comulgatorio", made of polychrome carved wood in the half-breed Baroque style. This is where the sisters received communion.

In the room below, don't miss the superb choir organ. This instrument was made in Sucre in 1664, in the workshops of the master Pedro de Las Casas. The outer doors are decorated with paintings of King David and Santa Cecilia. The bellows are made of cedar wood and lead and are manually pressed. The whole thing dates from the 17th century.