Gran Hotel Bolívar

The Gran Hotel Bolívar is a historic building and three-star hotel located next to San Martín Square in the historic centre of Lima, Peru. Part of a program to modernise the city, it was designed by noted Peruvian architect Rafael Marquina y Bueno and built in state property in 1924 to be the first large, modern hotel built in Lima, and with the specific intent of hosting foreign delegations for the 1924 centennial celebrations of the 1824 Battle of Ayacucho, a decisive military encounter during the Peruvian War of Independence.

While the square itself was inaugurated on July 27, 1921, the three-storey hotel was inaugurated on December 6, 1924, by then president Augusto B. Leguía. At the time of the 1921 centennial, it was instead the site of an industry fair. It was renovated in 1938, now standing at five floors. In the 1940s and 1950s, the hotel attracted Hollywood movie stars such as Orson Welles, Ava Gardner, and John Wayne, where many also discovered the local cocktail, the Pisco Sour.