Ramiriquí is a town and municipality in the Colombian Department of Boyacá, part of the subregion of the Márquez Province. Ramiriquí borders the department capital

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 departmen ...

in the north, in the south

Chinavita Chinavita is a town and municipality in the Neira Province, part of the Colombian department of Boyacá. The urban centre of Chinavita is located at from the department capital Tunja on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense and the municipality borders ...

and

Zetaquirá Zetaquirá () is a town and municipality in the Colombian Lengupá Province, part of the department of Boyacá. Zetaquirá is located at from the department capital Tunja and borders Pesca in the north, Miraflores in the south, in the east Be ...

, in the east Rondón and Ciénaga and in the west Chivatá, Tibaná and Jenesano.Official website Ramiriquí
- accessed 02-05-2016

Etymology

Ramiriquí was named after the last ''cacique''; Ramirique. In 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 cultures of the Americas. The Muisca inhabited the Altiplano Cundiboyace ...

of the Muisca ''Ramirraquí'' means "white earth". An alternative etymology is ''Ca-mi-quiquí'' which means "our strength over the grasslands".Etymology Ramiriquí
- accessed 02-05-2016

History

The area of Ramiriquí 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 ...

before the arrival of the

Spanish 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, ...

on 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 Alt ...

in the 1530s. The northern Muisca Confederation was ruled from nearby Hunza, present-day Tunja, after the mythological and brutal '' cacique'' Goranchacha moved the capital there from Ramiriquí. The first ruler of Hunza was

Hunzahúa Hunzahúa was the first '' zaque''; ruler of the northern Muisca with capital Hunza, named after him. His contemporary ''zipa'' of the southern Muisca was Meicuchuca. Biography Hunzahúa, heir of Idacansás, was a ''cacique'' in the sacred va ...

after whom the city was named. Second-last

ruler A ruler, sometimes called a rule, line gauge, or scale, is a device used in geometry and technical drawing, as well as the engineering and construction industries, to measure distances or draw straight lines. Variants Rulers have long ...

Quemuenchatocha Quemuenchatocha or Quimuinchateca (named in the earliest sources Eucaneme) ( Hunza, 1472– Ramiriquí, 1538) was the second-last ''hoa'' of Hunza, currently known as Tunja, as of 1490. He was the ruler of the northern Muisca when the Spanish con ...

died in Ramiriquí, after he was beaten by Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada. The modern town was founded on December 21, 1541 by Spanish

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 ...

Pedro Durán. Within the boundaries of Ramiriquí petroglyphs have been found.Petroglyphs in Ramiriquí
- accessed 02-05-2016

Economy

Main economical activities in Ramiriquí are

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 t ...

( uchuva, tree tomatoes, cucumbers,

beans A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes thr ...

blackberries The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family (biology), family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus' ...

and

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

), fishing and

crafts A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale prod ...

Born in Ramiriqui

* Jose Ignacio de Marquez, first civil Colombian president * José Patrocinio Jiménez, former professional cyclist * Mauricio Soler, former international cyclist

Gallery

File:Ramiriqui 05.JPG, Central square File:Ramiriqui 02.JPG, Central square File:Ramiriqui 01.JPG, Central square File:Ramiriqui 03.JPG, Central square and church File:Ramiriqui 04.JPG, Farmer monument File:Artesanias de Ramiriquí.jpg, Crafts in Ramiriquí

References

External links

Fly over Ramiriquí location using GoogleMaps'API
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramiriqui Municipalities of Boyacá Department Populated places established in 1541 1541 establishments in the Spanish Empire Muisca Confederation Muysccubun