Palacio de Justicia, Bogotá

The Palace of Justice on the northern side of the Plaza de Bolívar houses Colombia's Supreme Court and Council of State. The present modern building replaced an earlier one destroyed in a violent siege in 1985, an event that scarred the nation's memory and is marked at the site. Its restrained concrete and stone facade closes one edge of the great civic square, facing the congress across the plaza. As the seat of the country's highest courts, the building carries strong symbolic and historical weight.