History
La Candelaria’s cobblestone streets, colonial homes and centuries-old churches have witnessed many key events in the history of Colombia and Latin America. Here, revolutionary leader Símon Bolívar escaped capture and execution by the Spanish. La Quinta de Bolívar, a colonial home/museum where Bolívar lived some of his final years, is one of the neighborhood’s many historical landmarks.
Statue of La Pola at the Entrance to Los Andes University
Also in La Candelaria, revolucionary heroine Policarpa Salavarrieta, La Pola, a seamstress who spied on the Spaniards, was captured and executed in 1817. Our rides often pass the house where she was captured and then later pass by her statue.
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La Casa del Florero/ House of the Flower Pot
In La Casa del Florero/ House of the Flower Pot, on Bolivar Plaza, American-born criollos manufactured a dispute over a flower pot to ignite rebellion against Spanish rule. The result was the famous ‘cry of liberty,’ which marked the start of the region’s revolutionary war.
On the southeast corner of Plaza Bolivar is perhaps Colombia’s oldest educational institution – San Bartolome High School, founded by the Jesuits in 1604 and still operating!
Riding a llama in front of Colombia's Justice Palace, rebuilt after a 1985 guerrilla attack.
In 1985, La Casa del Florero was the scene of grimmer events after the M-19 guerrillas invaded the neighboring Palace of Justice, taking the Supreme Court justices and building employees hostage. The government counterattacked violently, and nearly 100 people died, including guerrillas, justices and palace employees. Recent evidence has shown that some of the dead employees were brought out alive by the military and apparrently murdered in the neighboring Casa del Florero, apparently because of suspicions that they had collaborated with the guerrillas. In a strange twist, the M-19 later made peace with the government and became a political party. Today, several ex-M-19 leaders are prominent congressmen in parliament, which faces the rebuilt Justice Palace, on the south side of Bolívar Plaza.
Plaques commemorate the site of Gaitan's assassination, now used by a lottery vendor.
In more recent history, in 1948 leftist, charismatic politician Jorge Eliécer Gaitán walked out of his office at 7th Ave. near La Jimenez and was assassinated by still unknown killers. Gaitán had become famous by denouncing the 1928 massacre of striking banana workers by the United Fruit Company, and he might well have been elected president. Today, plaques commemorate the site of his killing (ignore the neighboring McDonald’s). Gaitan’s killing triggered the bogotazo, huge riots which spread across Colombia and took thousands of lives. Among other things, the rioters pushed over and burned the city’s streetcars, or tranvias, and the abandoned tracks are still there in front of the assassination site. The riots were followed by a decade-long civil war known as La Violencia between members of the Liberal and Conservative political parties.
Portrait of Gaitan outside of his home, now a museum, operated by the National University.
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The Monument for Life and Disarmament' in Tercer Milenium Park, created after clearing a notorious slum area. From here, the FARC launched bombs at Uribe's inauguration.
In 2002, during Pres. Alvaro Uribe’s first inauguration, the FARC guerrillas launched homemade bombs at the presidential palace from a nearby slum area called El Cartucho. One bomb damaged the palace and the other two landed in slum areas, killing poor people. Today, El Cartucho has been turned into a public park, which we sometimes visit on our bike tours. During some rides we have met a homeless, drug-addicted man who says that one of the guerrilla bombs landed on his home, killing his parents and sister.
