The Bogota estate where Simon Bolivar hid from assassins and rested while presiding over nations he liberated had fallen into disrepair. The red tiles on the roof were in pieces and wooden columns chipped away.
After the South American liberator's death in 1830, the house was used at times as a girls school and a brewery.Now, with a $1.1 million spruce-up, it has been turned into a museum that Bolivar devotees hope will heighten interest in his life.
"This house sums up the moments of glory, joy and delight that Bolivar had for his triumphs and also of sadness and deception for the betrayals by his friends," said Elvira Cuervo de Jaramillo, president of Bogota's historical restoration society, which helped refurbish the 19th-century residence known as Quinta de Bolivar.
Colombia also hopes the home will strengthen the country's claim - hotly disputed by Venezuela - as the place where the liberator's heart really was.
"Bolivar was born in Venezuela, but I believe that Colombia was his fundamental home in terms of his political and military career," said the estate's museum director, Diana Torres de Ospina. "This house is proof of that."
Since its July reopening after a seven-year restoration, visitors have been streaming through the cobblestone courtyards and flourishing gardens of the estate. Fountains and cannons flank the simply furnished, cream-and-red stucco home, which contains the liberator's desk, trunk, watch, cape, saddle and many of his letters and medals.
The liberator sought refuge at the Quinta after supporters of his vice president, Francisco de Paula Santander, tried to assassinate him in 1828.
The attack was foiled when Bolivar's mistress, Manuelita Saenz, signaled for him to leap to safety from a balcony at the National Palace. Traces of Bolivar's and Saenz's life together decorate the walls and the airy rooms of the hacienda-style home.
Born in 1773 and inspired by the French revolution, Bolivar led separatist armies into hundreds of battles in a campaign to free more than half of South America from Spanish rule.
With the liberation of Peru and Bolivia and establishment of Gran Colombia - composed of today's Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador - the ideal became a reality from 1821 to 1830.
But his dream was pulled apart by power struggles within the federation, and Venezuela and Ecuador broke away amid complaints that Bolivar ruled as a despot.