Next door to Sucre's cathedral, this museum holds one of Bolivia’s best collections of religious relics. There are four sections, ritually unlocked as your guided tour progresses.
In the entry room is a series of fine religious paintings from the colonial era. Next, a chapel has relics of saints, and fine gold and silver chalices. The highlight, however, comes in the Capilla de la Virgen de Guadalupe, which was completed in 1625. Encased in the altar is a painting of the Virgin, the city’s patron. She was originally painted by Fray Diego de Ocaña in 1601, but the work was subsequently coated with highlights of gold and silver and adorned in robes encrusted with diamonds, amethysts, pearls, rubies and emeralds donated by wealthy colonial parishioners. The jewels alone are worth millions of dollars, making it the richest Virgin in the Americas.
