Colombia (Lonely Planet, 5th Edition) - Jens Porup [83]
Hostería Nemqueteba ( 735 7083; r COP$30,000; ) Bright rooms with high ceilings come with desk, TV and a clean bathroom. There’s a nice patio and a decent restaurant, but avoid the swimming pool, which looks like a habitat for a kronosaurus.
Hotel Suaya ( 735 7029; r per person COP$20,000; ) A block off the main plaza, Hotel Suaya is set in an old wooden house. Rooms are clean, have hot water and some have views of the main street.
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Getting There & Away
Ráquira is 5km off the Tunja–Chiquinquirá road, down a side road branching off at Tres Esquinas. Four minibuses run daily between Villa de Leyva and Ráquira (COP$3000, 45 minutes). A taxi from Villa de Leyva will set you back about COP$25,000. A handful of buses from Bogotá also call here daily.
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LA CANDELARIA
8 / pop 300 / elev 2255m
This tiny hamlet set amid arid hills, 7km beyond Ráquira, is noted for the Monasterio de La Candelaria ( 9am-5pm). The monastery was founded in 1597 by Augustine monks and completed about 1660. Part of it is open to the public. Monks show you through the chapel (note the 16th-century painting of the Virgen de la Candelaria over the altar), a small museum, the library, and the courtyard flanked by the cloister with a collection of 17th-century canvases hanging on its walls. Some of these artworks were allegedly painted by Gregorio Vásquez de Arce y Ceballos and the Figueroa brothers.
Only two buses a day call at La Candelaria, both of which come from Bogotá. Another option is to walk along the path from Ráquira (one hour). The path begins in Ráquira’s main plaza, winds up a hill to a small shrine at the top and then drops down and joins the road to La Candelaria.
A return taxi from Villa de Leyva to Ráquira and La Candelaria can be arranged for around COP$60,000 (up to four people), allowing some time in both villages.
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CHIQUINQUIRÁ
8 / pop 60,000 / elev 2590m
Chiquinquirá is the religious capital of Colombia, attracting flocks of devoted Catholic pilgrims due to a 16th-century miracle involving a painting of the Virgin Mary.
The Virgin of the Rosary was painted around 1555 by Spanish artist Alonso de Narváez in Tunja. It depicts Mary cradling baby Jesus and flanked by Saint Anthony of Padua and Saint Andrew the Apostle. Soon after it was completed, the image began to fade, the result of shoddy materials and a leaky chapel roof. In 1577 the painting was moved to Chiquinquirá, put into storage and forgotten.
A few years later, Maria Ramos, a pious woman from Seville, rediscovered the painting. Though it was in terrible shape, Ramos loved to sit and pray to the image. On December 26, 1586 before her eyes and prayers, the once faded and torn painting was miraculously restored to its original splendor. From then on its fame swiftly grew and the miracles attributed to the Virgin multiplied.
In 1829 Pope Pius VII declared the Virgen of Chiquinquirá patroness of Colombia. Dubbed ‘La Chinita’ by locals, the image was canonically crowned in 1919, and in 1927 her sanctuary declared a basilica. Pope John Paul II visited the city in 1986.
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Sights
Dominating the Plaza de Bolívar, the Basílica de la Virgen de Chiquinquirá houses the Sacred Image. Construction of the huge neoclassical church began in 1796 and was completed in 1812. The spacious three-naved interior boasts 17 chapels and an elaborate high altar where the painting is displayed. The painting measures 113cm by 126cm and is the oldest documented Colombian painting. Overlooking the Parque Julio Flórez (named after a locally born poet), the modern Iglesia de la Renovación sits on the site where the miracle of the Virgen de Chiquinquirá occurred. Next door is the Museo Mariano Nacional, a museum of religious art.
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Getting There & Away
All buses