Town of Villa de Leyva

Villa de Leyva

Villa de Nuestra Seńora de Santa Maria de Leyva, national monument since 1954, was founded the 12 of June, 1572 in the Zaquencipá valley, west of the current region of Boyacá by the "corregidor" (colonial spanish equivalent of a mayor) Hernán Suárez de Villalobos, who was commissioned to do so by the president of the Nuevo Reino de Granada, Andrés Díaz Venero de Leyva. The foundation created as a reaction to the social discontent that some soldiers and unemployed people were causing in Tunja.
The 14 of December of the same year, don Juan Otálora, "corregidor" of the city of Tunja, ratified the foundation. Amongst he land he distributed, friar Vicente de Requexada, agustinian priest and chaplain of Federmán, received a building plot and vegetable garden to build the San Agustín Cloister.

In 1575 and by order of King Philip II of Spain, Villa de Leyva was moved towards the east with the aim of restoring the lands which the new inhabitants had wrongly seized from the indigenous peoples. In 1584 the "corregidor" of Tunja moved the population its current location.

You may visit Villa de Leyva by land through the following routes:

Santafé de Bogotá - Samacá - Villa de Leyva (2 hours, 45 minutes)
Santafé de Bogotá - Tunja - Villa de Leyva (3 hours)
Santafé de Bogotá - Chiquinqurá - Villa de Leyva (3 hours, 15 minutes)

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