Oicatá is a town and municipality in the Central Boyacá Province, Department of Boyacá,

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. The urban centre is situated 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. (Do not confuse with The Altiplano or the Altiplano Nariñense, both fur ...

at an altitude of and a distance of from the national capital

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

and from the department capital Tunja. It borders Cómbita and Tuta in the north,

Chivatá Chivatá is a town and municipality in the Central Boyacá Province, part of the Colombian department of Boyacá. The urban centre is situated at an altitude of on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense at from the department capital Tunja. It borders ...

and Tunja in the south, Chivatá in the east and in the west Cómbita and Tunja.Official website Oicatá

Etymology

The name Oicatá comes from

Chibcha The Muisca (also called the Chibcha) are indigenous peoples in Colombia and were a Pre-Columbian cultures of Colombia, Pre-Columbian culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish colonizati ...

and means "Domain of the priests" or "Hailstoned farmlands".Etymology Oicatá
- Excelsio.net

History

The municipality was founded on May 9, 1539 by Pedro Ruiz Corredor. Before the

Spanish conquest The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It ...

it was the territory of the

Muisca The Muisca (also called the Chibcha) are indigenous peoples in Colombia and were a Pre-Columbian culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The Muisca spe ...

, which was the most developed in the country socially, culturally, and in productivity. Post-conquest governmental power was exercised by the Governor General, who was directly appointed by the King of Spain. After several centuries of Spanish rule, and after fierce battles, the people won their freedom from Spain in the

Battle of Boyacá The Battle of Boyacá (1819), also known as the Battle of Boyacá Bridge was a decisive victory by a combined army of Venezuelan and New Granadan troops along with a British Legion led by General Simon Bolivar over the III Division of the Spa ...

, where on August 7, 1819, troops under the command of

Simón Bolívar Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24July 178317December 1830) was a Venezuelan statesman and military officer who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bol ...

defeated the Spanish forces. In 1821 the Constitution of Cúcuta divided the country into departments, the departments into provinces, provinces into counties, and counties into parishes, establishing

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 mount ...

as an administrative entity comprising the provinces of Tunja, Pamplona, Socorro and Casanare. The Act of June 15, 1857, established Boyacá as a sovereign state consisting of the provinces of Tunja, Tundama, Casanare, and the counties of Chiquinquirá and Velez. The Act of October 31 of that year created four departments: Tunja with 42 districts, Tundama with 46, Casanare with 21, and Oriente (East) with 6. Under the Constitution of Rionegro in 1863 the administrative divisions of Boyacá underwent various modifications, and Law 10 of that year established a new division into 6 departments: Casanare, Tundama, North, West, East and Centre. The centrist Constitution of 1886 divided the country into departments, the departments into provinces, and the provinces into municipalities. The provinces were abolished in 1911 by Executive Decree No. 306, and several municipalities were separated off to form the commissariat of Arauca. Afterward the municipalities in the Orinoco region formed the intendency of Casanare as a newly annexed territory of Boyacá Department until 1973, when it split off again.

Economy

Main economical activity of Oicatá is

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

with products

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

es,

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

pea Pea (''pisum'' in Latin) is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species the scientific name ''Pisum sativum' ...

s and

bean A bean is the seed of some plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying (a ''pulse''), but fresh beans are also sold. Dried beans are traditi ...

Climate

Oicata's climate is influenced by its location and altitude. At almost 3000 m it is one of the higher cities in Colombia. As a result, the city features a

subtropical highland climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring c ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Cfb'') with little variation in temperature throughout the year but a distinct dry season from December to February.

Gallery

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oicata Municipalities of Boyacá Department Populated places established in 1539 1539 establishments in the Spanish Empire