La Capilla is a town and municipality in the

Eastern Boyacá Province The Eastern Boyacá Province is a province of the Colombian Department of Boyacá. The province is formed by 8 municipalities. The Tenza Valley is located in the Eastern Boyacá Province. The province hosts the eastern belt containing rich eme ...

, part of the

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 ...

n department of Boyacá. The urban centre is situated at an altitude of in the Tenza Valley.Official website La Capilla
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Borders

* North with

Úmbita Úmbita is a town and municipality in the Márquez Province, part of the Colombian department of Boyacá. Úmbita is situated on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense at a distance of from department capital Tunja and borders Nuevo Colón and Tibaná ...

and Pachavita * South with

Tenza Tenza () is a town and municipality in the subregion of the Eastern Boyacá Province of the Colombian department Boyacá. Tenza borders La Capilla and Pachavita in the north, in the east the department of Cundinamarca, in the south with Sutat ...

and Cundinamarca * West with Cundinamarca * East with Pachavita and Tenza

Etymology

La Capilla was originally called La Capilla de Tenza, after the Our Lady of Candle appeared in the outskirts of the village. Because of this, a chapel was built; hence the name Capilla.

History

The first inhabitants of the region of La Capilla were the Muisca, who were organised in their loose

Muisca Confederation The Muisca Confederation was a loose confederation of different Muisca rulers (''zaques'', ''zipas'', ''iraca'', and ''tundama'') in the central Andean highlands of present-day Colombia before the Spanish conquest of northern South America. T ...

. The people of the area of La Capilla were loyal to the ''

cacique A ''cacique'' (Latin American ; ; feminine form: ''cacica'') was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, the indigenous inhabitants at European contact of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The term is a S ...

s'' of

Garagoa Garagoa () is a town and municipality in Colombia, located in the Boyacá Department. It covers an area of 191.75 km2 and the urban centre is located at an altitude of above sea level. Parts of the municipality reach altitudes of . It is the ...

Sutatenza Sutatenza () is a town and municipality in the Eastern Boyacá Province of the department of Boyacá, Colombia. It is located from the Colombian capital Bogotá and from the department capital Tunja. Sutatenza borders Somondoco, Guateque, ...

and

Somondoco Somondoco is a town and municipality in the Colombian Department of Boyacá. This town and larger municipal area are located in the Valle de Tenza. The Valle de Tenza is the ancient route connecting the Altiplano Cundiboyacense and the Llanos. ...

in the Tenza Valley.

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, ...

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada y Rivera, also spelled as Ximénez and De Quezada, (;1496 16 February 1579) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador in northern South America, territories currently known as Colombia. He explored the territory named ...

and his troops passed through this valley in 1537, on their way to the domains of 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. Modern La Capilla was founded on November 13, 1793, by Juan de la Cruz Aguirre.

Economy

Main economical activity of La Capilla is agriculture, with

cucumber Cucumber (''Cucumis sativus'') is a widely-cultivated creeping vine plant in the Cucurbitaceae family that bears usually cylindrical fruits, which are used as culinary vegetables.tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

es and

bean A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes th ...

s cultivated.

Other characteristics

* Market Day: Monday * Distance from Tunja: * Median temperature: * Demonym: Capillense

Gallery

File:La Capilla, Boyacá, Colombia.jpg, Church File:La Capilla, espectacular.JPG, Church with Cuchavira File:1929 antiguo templo de La Capilla.jpg, The old chapel, namesake of La Capilla
1929 File:Peña de la Virgen, un atractivo para visitar.JPG, Peña de la Virgen hill

References

{{Municipalities boyaca department Municipalities of Boyacá Department Populated places established in 1793 1793 establishments in the Spanish Empire