Villa de Leyva
Villa de Leyva | |
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UTC-5 (Colombia Standard Time) | |
Website | Official website |
Villa de Leyva, also called Villa de Leiva, is a touristic colonial town and municipality, in the
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 completely 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.[3] The town and the surrounding countryside, which contains several sites of interest, are popular weekend destinations for citizens of Bogotá, 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
Geography
The urban centre of Villa de Leyva is located in an intermontane valley on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense at 2,149 metres (7,051 ft).[5]
History
The area of Villa de Leyva was
The town was founded on June 12, 1572 by and named after the first president of the New Kingdom of Granada, Andrés Díaz Venero de Leiva.[3][5]
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
Villa de Leyva has also been home to two other well-known figures in Colombian history.
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 observatory, made of phallic stones, colloquially named El Infiernito ("little hell" in Spanish), as the Spanish conquistadors 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 waterfalls collectively named La Periquera, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from the town centre.
Villa de Leyva was named a
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
Gallery
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El Infiernito, pre-Columbian archaeoastronomical site
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Sculpture of Madonna and Child
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Christ with outstretched arms
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Altarpiece of Church of Nuestra Señora del Rosario
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Church del Carmen
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Church of the colonial Hospital of Villa de Leyva
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Colonial City Hall
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Ancient hacienda and mill
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colonial church
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colonial courtyard of a mansion
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Paleontology museum of Villa de Leyva
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Ammonite monument in Villa de Leyva
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Paleontological museum with El Fósil
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Clay house
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Rural area
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Pozos Azules
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Interior museum
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House where Antonio Nariño died
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La Periquera waterfall
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Local ice cream store
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Christ with outstretched arms on the top of the town
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Statue of Antonio Ricaurte
In popular culture
- Florentino Ariza, the main character of Gabriel García Márquez's novel Love in the Time of Cholera (1985), is sent to Villa de Leyva, but never arrives there.
- Part of the film Cobra Verde (1987) by Werner Herzog was filmed here
- The Spanish-language soap opera El Zorro, la espada y la rosa (2007) has been filmed here
See also
References
- ^ "South of Ricaurte Province". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
- ^ "Bogotá to Villa de Leyva". Rome2rio. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
- ^ a b c David Carr (October 22, 2009). "Villa de Leyva, a Graceful Window on Colonial Colombia". NY Times. Retrieved June 18, 2014.
- ^ "Four Wine Trails through New World Regions". Wine Enthusiast. 2019-02-07. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
- ^ a b (in Spanish) Official website Villa de Leyva
- ^ "GUÍA: Red Turística de Pueblos Patrimonio de Colombia" (PDF). Fondo Nacional de Turismo de la República de Colombia - FONTUR. Dec 2020. Retrieved 29 Mar 2021.
- ^ Platypterygius sachicarum in the Paleobiology Database
- ^ Muiscasaurus catheti in the Paleobiology Database
- ^ Padillasaurus leivaensis in the Paleobiology Database
- ^ Brachauchenius in the Paleobiology Database
External links
- (in Spanish) Tourism guide
- (in Spanish) Colombia Official Travel Guide