SUN
Bolívar’s stable-house, now a museum, is a colonial house on a corner with a courtyard, that belonged to the father of El Libertador, don Juan Vicente de Bolívar y Ponte. The large rectangular house has a landscaped courtyard with a central fountain, and cane and wood corridors that give access to the rooms. Its magnificent firewood kitchen with masonry hood is memorable, just as the stables with direct access to the street, located in the back courtyard. The tiled-roof, single-story house, has a scale that gives it a pleasant sense of intimacy. The Libertador’s preference for this home is known, where as a child he took lessons from Father Andujar and don Andrés Bello. In 1941, the property was transferred to the Nation and in 1959 it was declared a National Monument. It was acquired by the Centro Simón Bolívar in 1963, and in 1967, for Caracas’ fourth centennial, it was opened to the public as a museum. In 2001 archaeological excavations were undertaken, in which ceramic remains and utensils dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were found underground, and are now exhibited alongside paintings, tools and furniture from the colonial period.
DF-55