page_title: Boyacá
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Boyacá / History
caption_attribution_description: Puente de Boyacá, Colombia
context_page_description: Boyacá is one of the 32 departments of Colombia. It is in the central northeastern part of the country, almost entirely within the mountains of the Eastern Cordillera to the border with Venezuela, although the western end of the department extends to the Magdalena River. Its capital is Tunja.
  Boyacá is known as "The Land of Freedom" because in this region there were several battles that resulted in the independence of Colombia from Spain.
context_section_description: The territory of present-day Boyacá was inhabited, during the Pre-Columbian time, by Muisca indigenous peoples. They lived mainly by agriculture and mining gold and emeralds.
  The first European to discover the area was the Spaniard Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada. In 1539, Gonzalo Suárez Rendón, a Spanish colonist, founded the city of Tunja and other places. Tunja became one of the main political and economic centers for the Spanish during the "Viceroyalty of New Granada".
  During the 19th century Boyaca was battleground of several important battles during the war of Independence; two of the most important were the "Battle of the Pantano de Vargas" (Vargas Swamp Battle) on 25 July 1819, and the "Battle of Boyacá" on 7 August 1819.
caption: The Puente de Boyacá is one of the most famous places in this department.
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