Ráquira, is a municipality and town in Boyacá Department,

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 ...

, part of the subregion of the Ricaurte Province. Ráquira is situated on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense and the urban center at an altitude of . It borders Tinjacá and Sutamarchán in the north, Guachetá, Cundinamarca in the south, in the east

Sáchica Sáchica is a municipality of Colombia situated approximately west of Tunja in the Ricaurte Province of the department of Boyacá. Sáchica borders Sutamarchán and Villa de Leyva in the north, in the east Chíquiza, Samacá and Ráquira i ...

and

Samacá Samacá is a town and municipality in the Central Boyacá Province, part of the Colombian Department of Boyacá. It borders Cucaita, Tunja and Ventaquemada in the east, Ráquira in the west, Sáchica, Sora and Cucaita in the north and Ventaqu ...

and in the west San Miguel de Sema and Lake Fúquene.Official website Ráquira
/ref>

Etymology

In Chibcha, Ráquira means "Village of the pans".Etymology Ráquira
- Excelsio.net

History

The area of Ráquira was inhabited by the Muisca in the centuries before the Spanish conquest of the central highlands of the Colombian

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

. Already in those times Ráquira was famous for its ceramics due to the clay of the area. In March 1537

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 crossed the valley around Ráquira. Modern Ráquira was founded on October 18, 1580 by

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ...

Francisco de Orejuela.

Economy

About three quarters of the economy of Ráquira is centered on the handcrafts. Other economical activities are

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to ani ...

farming and

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the econom ...

Tourism

Ráquira is famous in Colombia for its colony of artisans, who produce traditional northern Andean pottery & hand-woven goods. The Sunday market is especially a popular time to visit. Ráquira is also known for its colorful houses that contrast with the famous nearby town of Villa de Leyva.Crafts in Ráquira
/ref>

Gallery

File:Ráquira Boyacá parque.JPG, Central square and church Ráquira File:Iglesia Raquira.JPG, Church File:Church in Raquira, Colombia.jpg, Church File:27 Interior iglesia de Ráquira Boyacá.JPG, Church interior File:Venta de artesnias en raquira, 2006.JPG,

Arts and crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

in Ráquira File:Raquira artesanias.JPG, Crafts File:Ráquira figura barro.JPG, Clay sculpture File:26 trabajo en cerámica artesanal en Ráquira Boyacá.JPG, Ceramic sculpture File:Raquira rural.JPG, Rural area of Ráquira File:Granja Ráquira.JPG, Farm in rural area File:Carretera rural Raquira.JPG, Road in rural area File:Río ráquira.JPG, Ráquira River

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raquira Municipalities of Boyacá Department Populated places established in 1580 1580 establishments in the Spanish Empire Muisca Confederation Muysccubun