Potosi

Potosi, one of the highest cities in the world at over 4,000 metres, was once one of the richest, a UNESCO town that boomed on the staggering silver wealth dug from the Cerro Rico, the red mountain that looms above it, whose ore bankrolled the Spanish empire for centuries. That wealth left a legacy of grand colonial churches, mansions and the royal mint, and the mines are still worked today in harsh conditions.

History

The indigenous prospector Diego Huallpa is traditionally credited with discovering the silver of the Cerro Rico in 1545, and the mining town founded that year grew to more than 200,000 people; in the second half of the 16th century the mountain produced an estimated 60 percent of all the silver mined in the world, and the phrase valer un Potosí, to be worth a Potosí, is still used in Spanish. By 1565 the ore that could be smelted directly was exhausted, and production recovered only with mercury amalgamation, first the patio process invented by Bartolomé de Medina in 1554 and then, from 1609, a pan amalgamation method invented in Potosí itself. For centuries the city held the Spanish colonial silver mint, where pieces of eight were struck, and its historic centre and the Cerro Rico are now a World Heritage Site (Wikipedia, Potosí).

What's there

• The Cerro Rico - the silver mountain looming over the city.
• The colonial churches and mansions - the legacy of the silver boom.
• The Casa de la Moneda - the grand royal mint, now a museum.
• The working mines - the still-active cooperative mines (tours ethical concerns).

When to go

May to October, the dry season, for the best weather; at over 4,000 metres it is cold and the air very thin, so acclimatise well before arriving, ideally coming up from lower Sucre, and expect breathlessness even walking the streets.

What to expect

At over 4,000 metres the altitude is extreme, so acclimatise carefully. The tours into the still-working mines, where miners labour in genuinely dangerous, harsh conditions, raise real ethical questions, feeling to some like poverty tourism, so consider carefully and, if you go, with a respectful, miner-run operator bringing gifts.

Nearby

The city of Sucre, the Uyuni salt flat and the southern highlands are within reach.

Key facts