Cajicá

Cajicá is a municipality and town of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca, 39 km (24 mi) north of the capital Bogotá. It is located in the province of Central Savannah, being the third most populous municipality in the province after Zipaquirá and Chía. It is bordered by the municipalities of Zipaquirá to the north, Sopó to the east, Chía to the south, and Tabio to the west. The town is located at an altitide of 2,558 metres (8,392 ft) and has an average temperature of 14 °C (57 °F).

Origins

The name of Cajicá derives from a corruption of the two words cercado (fortress) and jica (stone), giving rise to its nickname of "The Stone Fortress". The original native Indian settlement was on the road between Zipaquirá and Tabio roughly on the site known today as Las Manas. This was the site where the vanguard of the conquistador army of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada first encountered the natives on March 23, 1537.

A description of Cajicá from 1593 lists a population of 776 native Indians. The date of the Spanish foundation of the town is considered to be March 5, 1598, when Juan de Hoyo began the construction of the first church of brick, under the orders of Judge Miguel de Ibarra. Both the original and successive churches were destroyed by earthquakes: the town's present church was begun towards the end of the 19th century and completed in 1930.