Boiaca

Boyacá encompasses high valleys and mountain slopes in the eastern Colombian Andes. Before Spanish conquest, much of this country belonged to Muisca chiefdoms, including Hunza, where the ruler known as the zaque held court. Muisca communities cultivated the highlands and exchanged salt, textiles and other goods. Spanish forces entered the region in 1537, and Gonzalo Suárez Rendón founded Tunja near Hunza in 1539.

The highland towns became part of the colonial New Kingdom of Granada. On 7 August 1819, during the campaign for independence, Simón Bolívar’s army defeated royalist forces at the bridge of Boyacá, south of Tunja. The victory opened the road to Bogotá and helped secure the independence of New Granada. The name of Boyacá thus recalls both the older Indigenous highlands and a decisive battle in the creation of a new republic.