This plaza was inaugurated in 1921 in the occasion of the centenary of the independence of Peru. In the central part, there is a monument in honor of General José de San Martín. It was built by the Catalan sculptor Mariano Benlliure. In this plaza of important buildings, the former Hotel Bolívar stands, which until the new millennium, was most elegant of Lima, as well as the Club Nacional, the watering hole for Lima's high society. The plaza has become one of the many symbols of Lima.