The most beautiful village in Boyacá — colonial cobblestones at 2,940m, artisan soccer ball workshops, and the entrance to the Páramo de Ocetá
Monguí is a colonial village in the Boyacá department of the Colombian Andes — at 2,940m in the eastern cordillera, 85km from Sogamoso on a road that climbs through potato and barley fields before dropping into the valley where the village sits. Monguí was declared the most beautiful village in Boyacá in 2006, a designation that the place earns: the central plaza (with the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, built 1694–1738) is surrounded by whitewashed buildings with cobalt-blue painted wood trim and terracotta-tiled roofs — the colour scheme is strictly regulated and consistently m…
Monguí was founded by the Spanish colonial administration in 1555 on the site of a Muisca settlement. The Muisca peoples of the Boyacá highlands were the gold-working culture behind the El Dorado legend — their ritual of the chief covering himself in gold dust and floating gold offerings into sacred lakes gave rise to the Spanish stories of a city of gold. The Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria (1694–1738) was funded by silver from the Boyacá mining economy; the façade's carved stone portal is the finest Baroque stonework in the eastern Andes of Colombia. Monguí's football manufactur…