Villa de Leyva, also called Villa de Leiva, is a touristic colonial town and municipality, in the Ricaurte Province, part of the

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 ...

. The town is a Colombian National Heritage Town and is on the tentative list for

UNESCO World Heritage Sites A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

. Villa de Leyva is located west of the departmental 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 department an ...

. It is about three hours by car or bus from

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 ...

. Located away from major trade routes in a high altitude valley of semi-desert terrain, and with no mineral deposits nearby to exploit, the town has undergone little development in the last 400 years. As a consequence, it is one of the few towns in Colombia to have preserved much of its original colonial style and architecture: the streets and large central plaza are still paved with cobblestones, and many buildings date from the sixteenth century. This has resulted in Villa de Leyva becoming one of Colombia's principal tourist attractions, and it was declared a National Monument on December 17, 1954 to preserve its architecture. The town and the surrounding countryside, which contains several sites of interest, are popular weekend destinations for citizens of Bogota, and attract an increasing number of foreign tourists. As a result of its cool temperatures, dry climate, and rich soil, Villa de Leyva has established itself as a

wine region This list of wine-producing regions catalogues significant growing regions where vineyards are planted. Wine grapes mostly grow between the 30th and the 50th degree of latitude, in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Grapes will sometimes ...

, with the emergence of a number of

wineries A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, b ...

around the town in recent years.

Geography

The urban centre of Villa de Leyva is located in an

intermontane Intermontane is a physiographic adjective formed from the prefix " inter-" (''signifying among, between, amid, during, within, mutual, reciprocal'') and the adjective "montane" (inhabiting, or growing in mountainous regions, especially cool, moi ...

valley 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 Alti ...

at .

History

The area of Villa de Leyva was inhabited early in the inhabitation of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense. The earliest archaeological evidence has been surfaced around ''

El Infiernito ''El Infiernito'' (Spanish for "The Little Hell"), is a pre-Columbian archaeoastronomical site located on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense () is a high plateau located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes ...

'', an archeoastronomical site dating back to pre- Herrera times. 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 ...

were the inhabitants of the area at the time of 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 ...

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 ...

'' of

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 ...

ruled over the area of Villa de Leyva. The town was founded on June 12, 1572 by and named after the first president 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 ...

, Andrés Díaz Venero de Leiva.Official website Villa de Leyva
/ref>

Arts and culture

There are several festivals held throughout the year, including a gastronomical festival in November, the water festival, the tree festival, the Villa de Leyva Jazz Festival in July, the International Kite-flying Festival in August, the onion beauty pageant in October, and the Festival of Lights on December 7. There are also several musical, painting and theatre events which are available throughout the whole year. As a gastronomic destination, restaurants tend to have live music bands or singers. There are also enjoyable storytellers who perform weekly in the main square for the entertainment of usual pedestrians or tourists. It is also common to rent bikes for historical tours of the town and its outskirts

Tourism

The focus of the town is the Plaza Mayor, which at 14,000 square meters is the largest square in Colombia and believed to be the largest entirely cobbled square in South America. The town's most famous son is

Antonio Ricaurte Antonio Ricaurte (June 10, 1786 – March 25, 1814) was a patriot of the Independence of Colombia and Venezuela and captain of Bolívar's army. He is remembered as the martyr of the Battle of San Mateo, where, in a heroic action, he blasted an e ...

(1797–1814), a captain in

Simon Bolivar Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

's army fighting for independence, and who died in a famous act of self-sacrifice at San Mateo in what is now Venezuela. The house in which he was born, on the Plazuela de San Agustín, was acquired by Colombia's Air Force in 1977 and turned into a military museum. Villa de Leyva has also been home to two other well-known figures in Colombian history.

Antonio Nariño Antonio Amador José de Nariño y Álvarez del Casal (Santa Fé de Bogotá, Colombia 1765 – 1824 Villa de Leyva, Colombia)Hector, M., and A. Ardila. Hombres y mujeres en las letras de Colombia. 2. Bogota: Magisterio, 2008. 25. Print. was a C ...

, best known for translating ''

The Rights of Man ''Rights of Man'' (1791), a book by Thomas Paine, including 31 articles, posits that popular political revolution is permissible when a government does not safeguard the natural rights of its people. Using these points as a base it defends the ...

'' into Spanish and a leading advocate for Colombian independence, lived the last few years of his life and died in Villa de Leyva. Luis Alberto Acuña (1904 – 1993), one of the most important Colombian artists of the 20th century, also spent his final years in the town. The houses of both men are now museums containing their personal properties, and in the case of Acuña, a selection of his works, including two murals on the walls of the internal patio. The House of the First Congress, where the First Congress of the United Provinces of Nueva Granada met on October 4, 1812, is located on the north corner of the main plaza. It is currently the site of the municipal council. A few miles further west is a

Muisca astronomy This article describes the astronomy of the Muisca. The Muisca, one of the four advanced civilisations in the Americas before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca, had a thorough understanding of astronomy, as evidenced by their architecture and ca ...

observatory, made of phallic stones, colloquially named ''

'' ("little hell" in Spanish), as the Spanish

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 ...

s were horrified by the stones and proclaimed that the Muisca would be banished to hell for their obscene representations. To the north-east of Villa de Leyva, the land rises to cloud-forest and includes the national park of Iguaque, and a group of seven

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...

s collectively named

La Periquera LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on Figure 8 ( ...

, from the town centre. Villa de Leyva was named a '' Pueblo Patrimonio'' (heritage town) of Colombia in 2010. It was among 11 municipalities nationwide that were selected to be part of the ''Red Turística de Pueblos Patrimonio'' original cohort.

Paleontology

Near Villa de Leyva are several other sites of interest. The valley in which the town is located is rich in fossils from the

Paja Formation Paja may refer to: * Paja, Iran, a village in Sari County * Paja (given name), a Serbian masculine name * Paja (surname) * Paja Formation, geologic formation in Colombia * Paja Brava :''Paja Brava is also used in Spanish speaking countries to ...

(

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

era), the most famous being a near-complete ''

Kronosaurus boyacensis ''Kronosaurus'' ( ; meaning "lizard of Kronos") is a potentially dubious genus of extinct short-necked pliosaur. With an estimated length of , it was among the largest pliosaurs, and is named after the leader of the Greek Titans, Kronos. It ...

'' discovered in 1977 about west of Villa de Leyva. Known simply as ''El Fósil'', the fossil was left ''in situ'' where it was discovered and a museum was built around it: another smaller ''Kronosaurus'' fossil was discovered nearby and brought to the museum to be displayed alongside the larger specimen. In the same formation the fossil

ichthyosaur Ichthyosaurs (Ancient Greek for "fish lizard" – and ) are large extinct marine reptiles. Ichthyosaurs belong to the order known as Ichthyosauria or Ichthyopterygia ('fish flippers' – a designation introduced by Sir Richard Owen in 1842, altho ...

s '' Platypterygius sachicarum'' and '' Muiscasaurus catheti'' and the

brachiosaur The Brachiosauridae ("arm lizards", from Greek ''brachion'' (βραχίων) = "arm" and ''sauros'' = "lizard") are a family or clade of herbivorous, quadrupedal sauropod dinosaurs. Brachiosaurids had long necks that enabled them to access the le ...

'' Padillasaurus leivaensis'' and

pliosaur Pliosauroidea is an extinct clade of plesiosaurs, known from the earliest Jurassic to early Late Cretaceous. They are best known for the subclade Thalassophonea, which contained crocodile-like short-necked forms with large heads and massive toot ...

Brachauchenius ''Brachauchenius'' (meaning 'short neck') is an extinct genus of pliosaurid that lived in North America (United States) and Morocco during the Late Cretaceous. History The type species, ''Brachauchenius lucasi'', lived in the Western Inland S ...

'', later reclassified as ''

Stenorhynchosaurus ''Stenorhynchosaurus'' is an extinct genus of pliosaurid plesiosaurs which lived in the Early Cretaceous of South America. The type species and only known is ''Stenorhynchosaurus munozi''. It was a medium-sized pliosaur, reaching an adult body l ...

'', have been discovered.''Platypterygius sachicarum''
in the

Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals, plants, and microorganisms. History The Paleobiology Database (PBDB) originated in the NCEAS-funded Phanerozoic Marine Pale ...

''Muiscasaurus catheti''
in the

''Padillasaurus leivaensis''
in the

''Brachauchenius''
in the

Gallery

File:Andrés Diaz Venero de Leyva.jpeg, Statue of Andrés Diaz Venero de Leyva File:Antonio Nariño busto Villa de Leyva.JPG, Statue of Antonio Nariño File:Parroquia villa de leyva.jpg, Church interior File:Cristo en lo alto.JPG, Statue of Jesus Christ in Villa de Leyva File:Monumento Ammonite Villa de Leyva.JPG, Ammonite monument in Villa de Leyva File:Centro de Investigaciones Paleontolocicas.JPG, Paleontological museum with ''El Fósil'' File:La casa de barro.jpg, Clay house File:Villa de Leyva alrededores.JPG, Rural area File:Pozos Azules en Villa de Leyva.jpg, ''Pozos Azules'' File:Cascada la periquera.jpg, La Periquera waterfall

In popular culture

* Florentino Ariza, the main character of

Gabriel Garcia Marquez In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብር� ...

's novel ''

Love in the Time of Cholera ''Love in the Time of Cholera'' ( es, El amor en los tiempos del cólera) is a novel written in Spanish by Colombian Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez and published in 1985. Edith Grossman's English translation was published by ...

'' (1985), is sent to Villa de Leyva, but never arrives there. * Part of the film ''

Cobra Verde ''Cobra Verde'' (also known as ''Slave Coast'') is a 1987 German drama film directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski, in their fifth and final collaboration. Based upon Bruce Chatwin's 1980 novel '' The Viceroy of Ouidah'', the film d ...

'' (1987) by

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with un ...

was filmed here * The Spanish-language

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

El Zorro, la espada y la rosa ''El Zorro, la espada y la rosa'' (''The Sword and the Rose'') is a Spanish-language telenovela based on Johnston McCulley's characters. Telemundo aired it from February 12 to July 23, 2007. This limited-run serial shows the masked crusader as a ...

'' (2007) has been filmed here

References

External links

*
Tourism guide
*
Colombia Official Travel Guide
{{Authority control Municipalities of Boyacá Department Populated places established in 1572 1572 establishments in the Spanish Empire Tourist attractions in Boyacá Department Muisca Confederation