The building that houses the Bolivian Legislative Assembly in Plaza Murillo in the center of La Paz has a large external clock above the entrance, which looks like a mirror image of an ordinary clock. The positions of the numbers on the dial are reversed, and the watch itself runs counterclockwise. The building, which was erected in the 1900s from concrete and steel, was originally planned as the headquarters of the Central Bank of Bolivia.
Initially, however, the clock here ran in the normal direction and only in 2014 was it reversed to better reflect the “South” Bolivian feature.
The construction of the Legislative Assembly building was started in 1890 by the architect José Manuel Pando from the then advanced material - concrete. It made it possible to create incredibly large indoor spaces and to withstand earthquakes so common in Bolivia. The palace was built and opened in 1905, in a neoclassical style. In 1925, to mark the centenary of the Republic, the building of the Legislative Assembly was rebuilt.
“Who said clocks should always work the same? Why should we always be obedient? Why can't we be creative? asked Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca, who seemed particularly pleased with the idea.
Changes were made by the designers to make Bolivians appreciate their cultural heritage and help the masses to identify more closely with their ancestral roots, Choquehuan said. The two main indigenous groups of the Bolivian people, the Aymara and Quechua Indians, are unique in the world and see the past as the time before them and the future as the time behind them. Reverse hours also correspond to the direction of movement of the sundial's shadow in the Southern Hemisphere. After all, the direction of movement of the clock hands was not chosen arbitrarily. The clock is an evolution of the sundial, and in the northern hemisphere the shadow of the sundial runs clockwise, while in the southern hemisphere it moves counterclockwise, making the La Paz clock a representation of the natural movement of shadows in the southern hemisphere.
However, this does not happen throughout the year. Near the equator, the shadow on the La Paz sundial does not always move counterclockwise. Over the course of several months, the direction of travel changes clockwise as the Sun shifts south to La Paz during the summer months in the Southern Hemisphere.
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When the new clock was installed, many La Paz residents thought it was a mistake. Others, more creative and younger people, welcomed the change. Some Bolivians now even think that all clocks on the continent should be reversed, like the one on the Bolivian Legislative Assembly building.