Santa Cruz: the gateway to Bolivia's Jesuit missions

The Santa Cruz Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica, on the main plaza, houses a museum of colonial sacred art in its underground crypt.

A short walk away, the four concentric rings that structure the colonial historic center, still visible in the city's urban layout, reflect the original Spanish design of the city.

Continuing inland, you reach the Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos, a UNESCO World Heritage site, with wooden carved churches built by Jesuits in the seventeenth century alongside indigenous populations.

As evening falls, the Equipetrol neighborhood comes alive with restaurants and venues in the city's more modern area.

The Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos remain a rare example of colonial religious architecture built in wood rather than stone, preserved intact thanks to the geographic isolation of the region after the Jesuits' expulsion in 1767.

Santa Cruz, once a small colonial town, has become in recent decades the primary economic engine of Bolivia thanks to intensive agriculture on the surrounding plains, surpassing the capital La Paz in population.