Floresta is a town and municipality in

Boyacá Department Boyacá () is one of the thirty-two departments of Colombia, and the remnant of Boyacá State, one of the original nine states of the "United States of Colombia". Boyacá is centrally located within Colombia, almost entirely within the moun ...

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 ...

, part of the Tundama Province, a subregion of Boyacá. Floresta is situated on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. It borders Santa Rosa de Viterbo,

Cerinza Cerinza is a town and municipality in the Colombian Department of Boyacá, and part of the Tundama Province subregion. Cerinza borders Belén in the north, Encino, Santander in the west, Santa Rosa de Viterbo in the south and Floresta and B ...

and Betéitiva in the north, in the east Busbanzá and Corrales in the west Santa Rosa de Viterbo and

Nobsa Nobsa is a town and municipality in Sugamuxi Province, part of Boyacá department. The urban centre is situated on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense at from the national capital Bogotá at an elevation of . Other parts of the municipality range in e ...

in the south.

History

Before the Spanish conquest of the highlands of Colombia, the area of Floresta was inhabited by the Muisca, organized in their

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 ...

. In those days Floresta, together with Santa Rosa de Viterbo, was called Tobasía which is still the name of a corregimiento of the village. Tobasía was ruled by a ''

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 ...

'' loyal to the ruler of Tundama, present-day Duitama. Modern Floresta was founded in 1818, three years before the independence of Colombia from the Spanish Empire. Floresta means "between the flowers".Etymology Floresta
- accessed 07-05-2016

Economy

Main economical activity of Floresta is agriculture, predominantly potatoes, maize and barley. Also the Colombian fruit

uchuva ''Physalis peruviana'' is a species of plant in the nightshade family ( Solanaceae) native to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. It is commonly known as Cape gooseberry, goldenberry or ground cherry, as poha in Hawaii, and as Harankash in Egypt, whil ...

is produced in Floresta. The municipality grows grapes, races Riesling and

Pinot Noir Pinot Noir () is a red-wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French language, French words for ''pine'' and ''black.' ...

for wine production, uncommon in tropical Colombia. Livestock and

dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...

farming are other production areas.

Geology

The fossiliferous

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...

Floresta Formation is named after Floresta and has provided many trilobites and brachiopod fossils.

Born in Floresta

Eliécer Silva Celis Eliécer Silva Celis ( Floresta, Colombia, 20 January 1914 – Sogamoso, 4 July 2007) was a Colombian anthropologist, archaeologist, professor and writer.

, anthropologist and archeologist, reconstructed the

Sun Temple A sun temple (or solar temple) is a building used for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, dedicated to the sun or a solar deity. Such temples were built by a number different cultures and are distributed around the ...

in Sogamoso

Gallery

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Floresta, Boyaca Municipalities of Boyacá Department Populated places established in 1818 1818 establishments in the Spanish Empire