Cerro Rico

Potosi is a major historic city located in the south central highlands of Bolivia, resting at an extreme high altitude of about 13,000 feet above sea level.

During the colonial era, Potosi was one of the wealthiest and most important cities in the Spanish Empire because it sits directly beneath the Cerro Rico, or Rich Hill, which produced staggering amounts of silver.

Yupanchi lived there around 1582 to 1583 to study under master woodcarvers and image makers, specifically in the workshop of Maestro Diego Ortiz.

Yupanchi studied fine religious sculpture and used his newly honed skills to carve the refined definitive image of Our Lady of Copacabana out of mage wood.

Thin air, no trees, no farmland worth the name.

In 1545, silver was found in a cone-shaped hill, the Spanish called Cerro Rico, the Rich Mountain.

A city grew at its foot almost overnight.

By around 1650, Potosí had roughly 160,000 people, larger than most major European cities of the day.