Tunja

Tunja, a town in northeastern Colombia, 81 miles northeast of Bogotá, 2005 estimated population 152,419. This highland town was founded by the conquistador Gonzalo Suárez Rendón in 1539 on the site of the Chibcha settlement of Hunza, and was declared a city in 1541. During the colonial period, Tunja was a small but important urban center in a largely deurbanized region; by 1610 its population included over seventy encomienda holders and was divided into three parishes. Tunja was a relatively minor participant in the Comunero Revolt of 1781 and in the struggle for independence, but one of the key patriot victories of the War of Independence was won at the battle of Boyacá, southeast of the town, on 7 August 1819. The decay of the highland agricultural and artisanal economy over the 1800s plunged Tunja into a long period of stagnation, despite its political role as capital of the department of Boyacá (1821–1832), province of Tunja (1832–1857), state of Boyacá (1858–1885), and department of Boyacá (1886–present). A Conservative Party bastion since the mid-nineteenth century, the town was long the scourge of Liberal publicists for the dominant role of the Catholic church in local affairs. Much of the town's colonial architecture, both civil and religious, is well preserved.

See alsoColombia, Political Parties: Conservative Party .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ramón C. Correa, ed., Historia de Tunja, vol. 1 (1944).

Additional Bibliography

Robayo, Juan Manuel. Iglesia, tierra y crédito en la colonia: Tunja y su provincia en el siglo XVIII. Tunja, Boyacá, Colombia: Editorial de la Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, 1995.

                                      Richard J. Stoller