Duitama

Duitama lies on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in Boyacá, at about 2,590 metres above sea level. Cool highland air, fertile soils and surrounding mountains supported potatoes, maize, beans and pasture. Routes through the valley linked the Muisca communities of the Bogotá savanna with the northern highlands and the lowland valleys of the eastern Andes.

The older place was Tundama, named for a Muisca ruler whose authority extended over Onzaga, Soatá, Susacón, Cerinza and other chiefs. Tundama was one of the principal rulers of the loose Muisca Confederation, alongside the zipa of Bacatá, the zaque of Hunza and the iraca of Sugamuxi. When Spanish forces entered the northern highlands, the ruler resisted their demands; the campaign of Baltasar Maldonado ended with Tundama’s surrender and death late in 1539.

Dominican missionaries began evangelizing the district in 1556. Churches, encomiendas and Spanish-style settlement reorganized the chiefdom, while indigenous farmers and herders continued to work the highland. Duitama’s identity joins a prominent Muisca political memory with the agricultural geography of the high plateau. Highland roads linked its markets and shrines. Roads carried trade.