Villa de Leyva | |
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 Church of Nuestra Señora del Rosario | |
 Flag  Seal | |
| Nickname(s): Villa de Nuestra Señora de Santa María de Leyva | |
 Location of the town of Villa de Leyva and the Leyva municipality in Boyacá Department | |
| Coordinates:5°38′N73°32′W / 5.633°N 73.533°W /5.633; -73.533 | |
| Country |  Colombia |
| Department | Boyacá Department |
| Province | Ricaurte Province |
| Founded | June 12, 1572 |
| Founded by | André Diaz Venero de Leyva |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Josue Javier Castellanos Morales (2020-2023) |
| Area | |
• City | 128 km2 (49 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 2,149 m (7,051 ft) |
| Population (2015) | |
• City | 16,984 |
| • Density | 130/km2 (340/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 9,926 |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (Colombia Standard Time) |
| Website | Official website |
Villa de Leyva, also calledVilla de Leiva, is a touristic colonial town and municipality, in theRicaurte Province, part of theBoyacá Department ofColombia. The town is aColombian National Heritage Town and is on the tentative list forUNESCO World Heritage Sites.[1] Villa de Leyva is located 37 kilometres (23 mi) west of the departmental capitalTunja. It is about three hours by car or bus fromBogotá.[2]
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 originalcolonial 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 awine region, with the emergence of a number ofwineries around the town in recent years.[4]
The urban centre of Villa de Leyva is located in anintermontane valley on theAltiplano Cundiboyacense at 2,149 metres (7,051 ft).[5]
The area of Villa de Leyva wasinhabited early in the inhabitation of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense. The earliest archaeological evidence has been surfaced aroundEl Infiernito, anarcheoastronomical site dating back to pre-Herrera times. TheMuisca were the inhabitants of the area at the time of theSpanish conquest and thezaque ofHunza ruled over the area of Villa de Leyva.
The town was founded on June 12, 1572 by and named after the first president of theNew Kingdom of Granada,Andrés Díaz Venero de Leiva.[3][5]
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
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 isAntonio Ricaurte (1797–1814), a captain inSimon Bolivar's army fighting for independence, and who died in a famous act of self-sacrifice atSan 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, best known for translatingThe Rights of Man 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 aMuisca astronomy observatory, made of phallic stones, colloquially namedEl Infiernito ("little hell" in Spanish), as the Spanishconquistadors 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 ofIguaque, and a group of sevenwaterfalls collectively namedLa Periquera, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from the town centre.
Villa de Leyva was named aPueblo Patrimonio (heritage town) of Colombia in 2010. It was among 11 municipalities nationwide that were selected to be part of theRed Turística de Pueblos Patrimonio original cohort.[6]
Near Villa de Leyva are several other sites of interest. The valley in which the town is located is rich in fossils from thePaja Formation (Cretaceous period), the most famous being a near-completeMonquirasaurus discovered in 1977 about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Villa de Leyva. Known simply asEl Fósil, the fossil was leftin situ where it was discovered and a museum was built around it: another smallerMonquirasaurus fossil was discovered nearby and brought to the museum to be displayed alongside the larger specimen.[3] In the same formation the fossilichthyosaursPlatypterygius sachicarum andMuiscasaurus catheti and thebrachiosaurPadillasaurus leivaensis andpliosaurBrachauchenius, later reclassified asStenorhynchosaurus, have been discovered.[7][8][9][10]
| Climate data for Villa de Leyva, elevation 2,215 m (7,267 ft), (1981–2010) | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 23.4 (74.1) | 23.7 (74.7) | 23.6 (74.5) | 23.2 (73.8) | 23.0 (73.4) | 22.5 (72.5) | 22.3 (72.1) | 22.6 (72.7) | 23.0 (73.4) | 22.9 (73.2) | 22.4 (72.3) | 22.9 (73.2) | 23.0 (73.4) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 16.7 (62.1) | 17.1 (62.8) | 17.2 (63.0) | 17.3 (63.1) | 17.2 (63.0) | 17.1 (62.8) | 16.8 (62.2) | 16.9 (62.4) | 17.0 (62.6) | 16.7 (62.1) | 16.7 (62.1) | 16.6 (61.9) | 16.9 (62.4) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 10.0 (50.0) | 10.7 (51.3) | 11.3 (52.3) | 11.8 (53.2) | 11.8 (53.2) | 11.3 (52.3) | 10.8 (51.4) | 10.9 (51.6) | 10.8 (51.4) | 11.0 (51.8) | 11.3 (52.3) | 10.7 (51.3) | 11.0 (51.8) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 50.2 (1.98) | 71.1 (2.80) | 115.3 (4.54) | 123.0 (4.84) | 106.7 (4.20) | 41.8 (1.65) | 39.7 (1.56) | 40.2 (1.58) | 67.4 (2.65) | 148.9 (5.86) | 119.2 (4.69) | 83.0 (3.27) | 997.2 (39.26) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 1.0 mm) | 9 | 11 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 17 | 17 | 12 | 149 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 75 | 74 | 76 | 77 | 77 | 75 | 73 | 71 | 72 | 77 | 79 | 77 | 75 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 195.3 | 163.7 | 151.9 | 120.0 | 133.3 | 141.0 | 158.1 | 158.1 | 141.0 | 133.3 | 135.0 | 167.4 | 1,798.1 |
| Mean dailysunshine hours | 6.3 | 5.8 | 4.9 | 4.0 | 4.3 | 4.7 | 5.1 | 5.1 | 4.7 | 4.3 | 4.5 | 5.4 | 4.9 |
| Source:Instituto de Hidrologia Meteorologia y Estudios Ambientales[11] | |||||||||||||
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Treasures of Colombia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source:Wills, Fernando; et al. (2001).Nuestro patrimonio – 100 tesoros de Colombia [Our heritage – 100 treasures of Colombia] (in Spanish).El Tiempo. pp. 1–311.ISBN 958-8089-16-6. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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