a city in Bolivia and the administrative center of La Paz Department; the functional capital and political, economic, and cultural center of the country. It is situated in the Andes, in a canyon of the Río de La Paz, at an elevation of 3,660 m. It has a tropical high-mountain climate. The mean temperature is 6°C in the coldest month (July) and 11°C in the warmest month (December). The annual precipitation is 570 mm. Population, 562,700 (1970). A railroad and highway junction, La Paz is linked by railroad with ports in Peru, Chile, and Argentina. El Alto Airport is of international significance. There are food-processing, textile, tobacco, and paper industries, as well as the production of cement, glass, footwear, furniture, and other items. La Paz also manufactures handicrafts (ceramics, wood carvings, and gold and silver articles). It is a commercial center.
La Paz was founded in 1548 by the Spanish conquistador Alonso de Mendoza. It was named La Paz (”peace”) to commemorate the reconciliation of several groups of Spanish conquistadors that had long been fighting among themselves. However, there was a continual struggle for power in the city among the descendants of the Spanish colonialists, which was accompanied by rebellions, revolts, and palace coups. In 1809 an uprising erupted in La Paz against Spanish rule, which was a prologue to the War of Independence of the Spanish-American Colonies of 1810–26. In 1825 the city was finally liberated by the troops of General Sucre. In 1898, La Paz became the de facto capital of Bolivia (the official capital is Sucre). In April 1952 the city was the site of a three-day rebellion, which marked the beginning of the Bolivian Revolution of 1952.
La Paz is the seat of the president’s residence and government institutions. The rectangular grid of streets from colonial times has survived in the old sections, which have traditional two-story houses. Several buildings were constructed in the baroque style, including the 18th-century Diez de Medina Palace (1775; three stories with arcades and stairways in internal courtyards), the 18th-century Villaverde Palace, the Church of San Francisco (c. 1743–84; a tripartite portal with rich carving), the Church of Santo Domingo (1726), the Church of San Pedro (1790; the vault of the nave and the dome made from a lime-pumice cement on a thatched framework). In the partially rebuilt center (including Arce, Camacho, and Potoci streets, as well as Avenida de 16 julio) there are multistory, reinforced-concrete buildings that were constructed in the mid-20th century. On the outskirts of the city are Indian sections with poor facilities.
La Paz is the seat of the University of San Andrés, a pedagogical institute, the National Conservatory, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of History, the Geophysical Institute, the Library of the Department of Culture, the Municipal Library; the Tiahuanaco National Museum (art of ancient and colonial periods, Bolivian folk art), and the Municipal Theater.
a city in Mexico, in the southern part of Lower California, administrative center of Baja California Sur. Population, 42,000 (1969). La Paz has cotton-ginning enterprises. It is a commercial and fishing port. Cotton is exported.