Motavita is a town and municipality in the

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 ...

Department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

of Boyacá, part of the subregion of the

Central Boyacá Province The Central Boyacá Province () is a province of the Colombian Department of Boyacá. The province is formed by fifteen municipalities, including the departmental capital Tunja. Municipalities Cómbita • Cucaita • Chíquiza • Chivatá • ...

. It covers approximately .Official website Motavita

Etymology

The name Motavita comes from the

Chibcha language Chibcha, Mosca, Muisca, Muysca (*/ˈmɨska/), or Muysca de Bogotá, was a language spoken by the Muisca people of the Muisca Confederation, one of the many Indigenous peoples in Colombia, indigenous List of pre-Columbian cultures, cultures of ...

and means "washing place to prepare for growing crops", indicating a ceremonial use.

Geography

Motavita is bordered to the north by

Arcabuco Arcabuco is a town and municipality in the Ricaurte Province, part of the Colombian Department of Boyacá. Arcabuco is situated on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense with the urban centre at an altitude of . The municipality borders Moniquirá and ...

and

Cómbita Cómbita is a town and municipality in the Colombian Departments of Colombia, Department of Boyacá Department, Boyacá, part of the sub region of the Central Boyacá Province. Cómbita is situated on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense and borders Arcab ...

, to the east and south by

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 ...

, and to the west by Sora and

Chíquiza Chíquiza () is a town and municipality in the Central Boyacá Province, part of the Colombian Department of Boyacá. Chíquiza was called San Pedro de Iguaque until July 17, 2003 when the name was changed to Chíquiza. The municipality is sit ...

History

In the time before the

Spanish conquest of the Muisca The Spanish conquest of the Muisca took place from 1537 to 1540. The Muisca were the inhabitants of the central Andean highlands of Colombia before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. They were organised in a loose confederation of differe ...

, Motavita 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 ...

, organised in their loose

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 ...

. Motavita was an important settlement in the

coca Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. The plant is grown as a cash crop in the Argentine Northwest, Bolivia, Al ...

trade with surrounding indigenous groups, such as the

Muzo people The Muzo people were a Cariban-speaking indigenous group who inhabited the western slopes of the eastern Colombian Andes. They were a highly war-like tribe who frequently clashed with their neighbouring indigenous groups, especially the Muisca. I ...

who populated the western parts of Boyacá. Motavita was ruled by 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 ...

'' of nearby

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 ...

Conquistador 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 ...

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 ...

, brother of

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 ...

, reached Motavita in 1540. In 1776 the first evangelisation of the Catholic Church was established by

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...

Juan Pérez. Modern Motavita was founded on December 23, 1816 and its first mayor was Marino Monrroy.

Divisions

Motavita was divided into five

cadastral A cadastre or cadaster is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref> Often it is represented graphically in a cad ...

vereda Vereda () is a subdivisional administrative part of a municipality in Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast ...

(townships): Centro, Carbonera, Ristá, Salvial and Sote Panelas; however, Sote Panelas had four more veredas split off from it, namely: Frutillal, Versalles, Quebrada Honda and Barro Hondo, thus making nine vereda.

Born in Motavita

Jefferson Vargas Jefferson Abacuc Vargas Pacheco (born 6 November 1984) is a Colombian former professional road cyclist. Major results ;2008 : 1st Stage 4 Vuelta a Colombia The Vuelta a Colombia (Spanish for ''Tour of Colombia'') is an annual cycling roa ...

, professional cyclist

References

{{Municipalities boyaca department Municipalities of Boyacá Department Populated places established in 1816 1816 establishments in the Spanish Empire Muisca Confederation Muysccubun