Ciudad Bolivar's historic centre is in a good state of preservation, with charming colonial buildings around the "Plaza Bolivar", including a cathedral.

It today serves as an important port of eastern Venezuela on the Orinoco River. One of the Orinoco Basin's chief commercial centers, its main products include gold, iron ore, cattle, hides and rare woods.

The town also gave its name to the Angostura tree (Cusparia febrifuga) which grows in the area. The bark of the small shrub-like tree was traditionally used as a bitter tonic and fever reducer. Angostura bitters were invented there, although the company has since moved to Trinidad and Tobago.

In 1973 a Museum of Modern Art opened. It was designed by Carlos Raúl Villanueva and was named after the city's famous son, the kinetic sculptor Jesus Soto.

Congress of Angostura

In 1819, the Congress of Angostura declared South American military leader and revolutionary Simón Bolívar the President of Venezuela, and on December 17, 1819, declared the creation of the Republic of Gran Colombia, with Bolívar still as president. Bolivar's famous prophetic and inspiring address to the congress (see link), distinguishing the Venezuelan character from the North American one, with its "weak and complicated system" of government, and emphasizing the Venezuelan revolutionaries' extraordinary and complicated position ("We are not Europeans; we are not Indians"), advocated a parliamentary system based on the British model, with a hereditary senate.

External links

• Bolivar's message to the Congress of Angostura

History of Venezuela | Cities in Venezuela

Ciudad Bolívar | Ciudad Bolívar | Ciudad Bolívar | Ciudad Bolívar | シウダ・ボリバル | Ciudad Bolívar | Ciudad Bolívar | Ciudad Bolívar | Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela | 玻利瓦尔城