Casa del Florero (Independence Museum)

Take a look at this white house with its green balcony. It seems far too modest to have changed the history of a country, and yet in one of its shops the events of 20 July 1810 began.

1A quarrel with a script

The house was built in the late 16th century for Marshal Hernán Venegas Carrillo. By 1810 its ground floor was let to shops, among them that of the Spaniard José González Llorente. It was a Friday, market day, and the square was packed with people of every class.

The day before, a group of creoles had hatched a plan. They would ask Llorente to lend them a flower vase, or any ornament, for a banquet in honour of the royal commissioner Antonio Villavicencio, and they were counting on him to refuse. Shortly before noon, Luis de Rubio, the Morales brothers and Pantaleón Santamaría walked into the shop. Llorente said no, insults flew and someone ran out to shout that the Spaniard had insulted every American-born man. The market crowd did the rest.

The vase was the pretext. The real aim was to force the viceroy to accept a governing junta, and that same night the act of the extraordinary town council was drawn up.

Viceroy Antonio Amar y Borbón was removed from power a few days later. Llorente spent several months under arrest.

2From shop to museum

The house survived the Bogotazo riots of 1948 because its owners defended it from the mob. In 1960, 150 years after the uprising, the 20 July Museum opened here; today it is the Independence Museum. Inside is what is believed to be the base of the famous vase.

3What to look for

• The corner balcony, which overlooked markets, bullfights and proclamations.
• The ground-floor doors: this is where the shops were, Llorente's among them.
• The stone plinth and whitewashed walls, the classic look of a Santafé house.