"If I owe Caracas my life, I owe Mompox my glory," reads the inscription on the monument in the town hall across from the convent of San Carlos. This confirms the importance of this town in the history of both Colombia and the continent as a whole. Simón Bolívar, El Libertador (leader of Colombia’s independence from Spain) once stayed in the building that houses the Museum of Religious Art (or Casa Bolivariana), where 320 pieces of gold and silver are displayed.