Witches' Market (Mercado de las Brujas / Mercado de Hechicería), La Paz

The Witches' Market (also rendered El Mercado de las Brujas, Mercado de Hechicería or La Hechiceria) is an open-air street market in the El Rosario neighborhood of La Paz, Bolivia, centered on Calle Linares and extending into nearby Jiménez, Santa Cruz and Illampu. Contemporary travel and encyclopedic sources describe it as a longstanding tourist spectacle and a local market where vendors—often older women in traditional Andean dress—sell objects used in Aymara/Andean ritual practice. Items commonly reported in multiple sources include dried llama fetuses for ritual offerings, small ritual figurines (for example condor figures), and Inca-style amulets and other ritual charms. The market's "witches" label is presented in sources partly as a recognizability/tourism choice for foreigners rather than as documentary evidence that the site is the locus of named witches or specific supernatural entities. In 2019 the market was designated as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of La Paz, reflecting its recognized cultural role. The supplied sources focus on the market's cultural, commercial, and ritual roles and do not document ghost sightings, poltergeist activity, or named spirits directly associated with the site.