Little Potosi (Bolivie)

Potosi Cathedral

The fate of Potosi, a small hamlet of 4000m in the Andes has changed dramatically starting in the 1540s with the intense exploitation of silver mines here, the largest silver mine in the New World. By the seventeenth century, Potosi had 160,000 people deserted and 13,500 Indians worked in mines under Mita hardship regime.

Mining only slowed down after Bolivie became independent in 1825, leaving excellent traces in the city and in the surrounding area: Dams that control supply run ore and system crushing plants King's mine, the largest and most well-preserved mine in 5000 mines on the plateau and in the valley.

Potosi silver coin

In the city there are Baroque-style buildings mixed with Indian influences that have spread throughout the central Andes: About two dozen churches, magnificent mansions of nobility contrast with those Poor rancherias in the local residential area, and the King's money minting with a seal stamped on thousands of tons of silver made Potosi one of the pillars of the European economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. .

For more than 10 years, Unesco and UNDP (United Nations Development Program) have helped Bolivie to protect Potosi. The listing of works has been conducted with historical studies.Potosi is listed in the World Heritage List in 1987.