The Casa del Fundador Gonzalo Suárez Rendón (English: "House of the Founder Gonzalo Suárez Rendón") is a museum and monument in

Tunja Tunja () is a city on the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes, in the region known as the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, 130 km northeast of Bogotá. In 2018 it had a population of 172,548 inhabitants. It is the capital of Boyacá department an ...

, the capital of Boyacá,

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

. It is situated on the central square of Tunja, named ''Plaza Bolívar'', but historically called ''Plaza Suárez Rendón'', honouring the city founder

Gonzalo Suárez Rendón Gonzalo Suárez Rendón (1503, Málaga, Castile – 1590 (or 1583), Tunja, New Kingdom of Granada) was a Spanish conquistador, known as the founder of the capital of Boyacá; Tunja, second city of the New Kingdom of Granada. A veteran of the It ...

, who established Tunja for the Spanish Crown on August 6, 1539. The colonial building, declared a monument in 1959 and designated as museum in 1965, is the only remaining house of a city founder in Latin America and started construction in 1540.

Background

The

Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense () is a high plateau located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes covering parts of the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá. The altiplano corresponds to the ancient territory of the Muisca. The Alti ...

, the central high plateau in the

Eastern Ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. The club is a founding member of the competition (1992) and has produced several players for the Australian Football Leagu ...

of the Colombian

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

before the

Spanish conquest The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predece ...

, was inhabited by the

Muisca The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan langu ...

, a collection of

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

who spoke a version of

Chibcha The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan langu ...

; '' Muysccubun''. Their egalitarian society and

economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

was self-sufficient and based on

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

trading Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct exchan ...

with various surrounding indigenous groups and the

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

halite Halite (), commonly known as rock salt, is a type of salt, the mineral (natural) form of sodium chloride ( Na Cl). Halite forms isometric crystals. The mineral is typically colorless or white, but may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, p ...

, giving them the name "The Salt People". They lived in small settlements of ten to one hundred ''bohíos'' scattered in the valleys of the Andes. Their system of hierarchy consisted of ''

cacique A ''cacique'' (Latin American ; ; feminine form: ''cacica'') was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, the indigenous inhabitants at European contact of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The term is a Spa ...

s'' and priests and the ''cacique'' of certain settlements were guarding larger areas. The main

leaders Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets view ...

of the community were the ''

zipa When the Spanish arrived in the central Colombian highlands, the region was organized into the Muisca Confederation, which had two rulers; the ''zipa'' was the ruler of the southern part and based in Muyquytá. The ''hoa'' was the ruler of the n ...

'' based in

Bacatá Bacatá is the name given to the main settlement of the Muisca Confederation on the Bogotá savanna. It mostly refers to an area, rather than an individual village, although the name is also found in texts referring to the modern settlement of Fu ...

and the ''

zaque When the Spanish arrived in the central Colombian highlands, the region was organized into the Muisca Confederation, which had two rulers; the ''zipa'' was the ruler of the southern part and based in Muyquytá. The ''hoa'' was the ruler of the n ...

'' based in

Hunza Hunza may refer to: * Hunza, Iran * Hunza Valley, an area in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan ** Hunza (princely state), a former principality ** Hunza District, a recently established district ** Hunza River, a waterway ** Hunza Peak, a mou ...

, today known as Tunja. In April 1536, a group of 800

conquistadors Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...

led by

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada y Rivera, also spelled as Ximénez and De Quezada, (;1496 16 February 1579) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador in northern South America, territories currently known as Colombia. He explored the territory named ...

left the Caribbean coastal city of

Santa Marta Santa Marta (), officially Distrito Turístico, Cultural e Histórico de Santa Marta ("Touristic, Cultural and Historic District of Santa Marta"), is a city on the coast of the Caribbean Sea in northern Colombia. It is the capital of Magdalena ...

on a harsh expedition into the heart of the Andes. This journey, that took one year and the lives of eighty percent of their men, led them into what was called by early

chroniclers A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

the "

Muisca Confederation The Muisca Confederation was a loose confederation of different Muisca rulers (''zaques'', ''zipas'', '' iraca'', and ''tundama'') in the central Andean highlands of present-day Colombia before the Spanish conquest of northern South America. The ...

". After submitting the southern Muisca who lived on the

Bogotá savanna The Bogotá savanna is a montane savanna, located in the southwestern part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the center of Colombia. The Bogotá savanna has an extent of and an average altitude of . The savanna is situated in the Eastern Range ...

in April 1537, the troops split up and Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, his brother

Hernán Pérez de Quesada Hernán Pérez de Quesada, sometimes spelled as Quezada, (c. 1515 – 1544) was a Spanish conquistador. Second in command of the army of his elder brother, Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, Hernán was part of the first European expedition towar ...

and various others set foot to the northeast, where they reached the territories of the ''hoa'' in August 1537. ''hoa'' Eucaneme was defeated by the Spanish on August 20, 1537, in his ''bohío'' in Hunza. What followed were several other expeditions to parts of the Muisca Confederation and the foundation of the city of

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

on August 6, 1538, becoming the capital of the

New Kingdom of Granada The New Kingdom of Granada ( es, Nuevo Reino de Granada), or Kingdom of the New Granada, was the name given to a group of 16th-century Spanish colonial provinces in northern South America governed by the president of the Royal Audience of Santa ...

, as the colonial lands of the

Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...

was called after the home region of the brothers De Quesada in

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

, Spain. Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada embarked a ship in Cartagena with several other conquistadors for Spain in the first half of 1539 and left the control of the new colony in the hands of his brother. Under his command, various atrocities were committed against the ''caciques'' of the Muisca;

Sagipa Sagipa or Zaquesazipa (died 1539, Bosa, New Kingdom of Granada) was the fifth and last ruler ('' psihipqua'') of Muyquytá, currently known as Funza, as of 1537. He was the brother of his predecessor Bogotá but the traditional faction of the Mui ...

and Quiminnza (the successor of Eucaneme) were decapitated in public spectacles. One of the captains of Hernán Pérez de Quesada was

, who was sent from Bogotá to Hunza, founding the city of Tunja as second-most Spanish colonial settlement on the Altiplano on August 6, 1539. The Spanish set up a system of

encomienda The ''encomienda'' () was a Spanish labour system that rewarded conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. The labourers, in theory, were provided with benefits by the conquerors for whom they laboured, including military ...

s and Suárez Rendón became the first encomendero of Tunja.

Description

The Casa del Fundador Gonzalo Suárez Rendón is located at the eastern end of the central square of Tunja; ''Plaza de Bolívar'', previously called ''Plaza Suárez Rendón''.Museos de Boyacá
/ref>
/ref> The house, with present address Carrera 9 #19-56 between the cathedral of Tunja and the Universidad de Boyacá, was built roughly between 1540 and 1570 by 3000

for the city founder

.Casa del Fundador "Gonzalo Suárez Rendón"
/ref> The building is characterised by the cloistered staircases, the painted roof of the central hall and the use of

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

.Nuestro Municipio - Casa del Fundador Gonzalo Suárez Rendón
/ref>Visita la Casa del Fundador Gonzalo Suárez Rendón
/ref> The house consists of two floors and is built around a central garden (patio) in an L-shaped form, with view on the Tunja Valley. The ground floor is built with stone arches and the upper floor built with wood. The architectural style is Andalusian and the front of the building is adorned with a sign that says "Captain Gonzalo Suárez Rendón, founder of the city of Tunja, built this house in 1539". The building was constructed from 1540 onwards, on the site where the first reunions of the colonists were held in August 1539 and served as the house of the founder and his family. Indigenous chronicles state that the house was in an advanced stage of completion in 1562. In 1570, conquistador

Luis Lanchero Luis Lanchero, also known as Luis Lancheros (?, Spanish Empire, Castile - 1562, Tunja, New Kingdom of Granada) was a Spanish List of conquistadors in Colombia, conquistador and the founder of the town of Muzo, Trinidad de los Muzos, Boyacá Depart ...

reported that it was one of the most luxurious mansions of the New Kingdom of Granada. Many conquistadors of the early days of the colony stayed in the house, among which Jerónimo Lebrón de Quiñones, Alonso Luis de Lugo, Hernán Pérez de Quesada and

Pedro de Ursúa Pedro de Ursúa (1526 – 1561) was a Spanish conquistador from Baztan in Navarre. He is best known for his final trip with Lope de Aguirre in search for El Dorado, where he found death in a plot. He was born in Arizkun, Baztan, to a Beaum ...

. The house was made a museum in 1965 and hosts eighty objects of art and history. It is administered by the municipality (''Alcaldía Mayor'') and hosts a library.Museo Casa del Fundador Gonzalo Suárez Rendón
/ref>

Gallery

File:Casa del fundador.JPG, Entrance to the patio File:Nuestro42.jpg, Archway and patio File:Centro historico de Tunja 91.jpg, Balconies on the upper floor File:Hunza24.jpg, Colonial furniture at the entrance of the bedroom of Gonzalo Suárez Rendón File:Centro historico de Tunja 79 PINTURA MURAL CASA DEL FUNDADOR.jpg, Mural in the house File:Casa del fundador 2.JPG, Sign at the entrance

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Casa del Fundador Gonzalo Suarez Rendon Buildings and structures in Tunja 1540 establishments in the Spanish Empire 1965 establishments in Colombia City founding Tourist attractions in Boyacá Department History museums in Colombia Spanish conquest of the Muisca

Background

Description

Gallery

See also

References

External links