Bogotá Walking Tour

The Botero Museum also known as Museo Botero is a museum located in Bogotá. It houses one of Latin America's most important international art collections. It sees 500,000 visitors annually, around 1,000 daily, and of those 2,000 students per month. Being in La Candelaria neighborhood of Bogotá, the museum is within close proximity to other important landmarks like the Luis Ángel Arango Library and the Gold Museum of Bogotá. In the year of 2000 the Colombian artist Fernando Botero donated 208 art pieces, 123 of his own making and 85 of other international artists, to the Bank of the Republic. The Museum is administered by Banrepcultural. With this collection, the Botero Museum was founded in the neighborhood of La Candelaria, the historic center of Bogotá, in a colonial mansion that was acquired by the Bank of the Republic and made suitable to house the art collection by Fernando Botero himself. Since November 1, 2000, the museum has been open to the public free of charge. The museum consists 123 works of Fernando Botero and 85 of other artists for a total of 208 works of art. Highlights of the permanent collection include works by Balthus, Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Sonia Delaunay, Claude Monet and Henri Matisse.

The Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica Primate of Colombia (Spanish: Catedral Primada de Bogotá), officially the Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, is a Roman Catholic cathedral. It is seat of the Archbishop of Bogotá, Cardinal Mon. Ruben Salazar Gomez. The Cathedral was built four-times in the same place. The first construction took place between 1556-1565 to replace the original thatched chapel, but due to poor foundation it later collapsed. The second construction took place around in 1572, yet the earthquake of 1785 reduced it to ruins. The fourth and final construction occurred between 1807 and 1823. It is said to be built by descendants of Jesuit missionaries. When the Spanish conquerors officially founded the city of Bogotá (changing the original Indian name of the city: Bacata), they established in 12 huts and a hay-church, that -after being totally built- would take the name of Archbishopric Cathedral of Bogotá. The cathedral holds the remains of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, founder of Bogotá. The cathedral, its area 5,300 square meters, is the biggest in Colombia and one of the biggest ones in South America.

The National Capitol of Colombia is the seat of the National Congress, the highest legislative body of the Republic of Colombia. The capitol was originally designed by Thomas Reed at the request of President Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera, it was built between 1848 and 1926 and various architects were in charge. It is one of the most representative constructions of republican and neoclassical architecture in the city. The National Capitol of Colombia was declared a National Monument by decree 1584 of August 11, 1975. The main facade is located on the south side of the Plaza de Bolívar and is made up of two symmetrical lateral bodies and a transparent central body like a portico, consisting of a six-row colonnade of three Ionic-style columns that have two spans in each of its ends, one on top of the other and framed by two protruding bulbs supported by two terraced pilasters. The building is crowned horizontally with a entablamiento that finishes in a cornice with four taps and a balustrade in which vases and palmetas are interspersed. The drainage system at the height of the cornice is adorned with gargoyles with animal heads. In 1938, Ignacio Gómez Jaramillo painted two murals for the Capitolio Nacional in Bogotá. In 1947 for the Inter American Conference, Santiago Martínez Delgado painted a majestic mural under commission of the then director of the OEA, Alberto Lleras Camargo and Conference organizer Laureano Gómez, two men who later became Presidents of Colombia. This mural of the Elliptic chamber National Congress Building, made in the fresco style, represents Bolivar and Santander exiting the Cucuta congress during the creation of the Great Colombia. The mural is considered the most important fresco in the country and the artist's main masterpiece.

The Casa de Moneda de Colombia (Spanish for Colombian mint) is a Colombian currency museum based in the city of Bogotá. It was founded in 1621 as the mint ('casa de moneda' translates as 'mint'). The current mint is known simply as the Fábrica de Moneda (coin factory). Alonso Turrillo de Yebra arrived in 1621 with royal ordinances that accredited him to create the first Mint in the New Kingdom of Granada, and for this, he rented a low house in the La Candelaria neighborhood of present-day Bogotá to begin the work of reprimand in which, in an artisanal way, the first gold machines of America, known as doubloons, were elaborated among others. You can also find variety in its class or currency types. Almost half a century later, during the reign of Ferdinand VI, the House expands to house the new machines and the production is mechanized to produce circular pieces and better invoices. In 1752, Don Juan Espinosa de los Monteros and Bilbao arrived in Santafé from Seville to serve as faithful of the balance, just as he had done so far in the Royal Mint of Seville. In 1756 Viceroy Solis reopened the House, as can be read in the frieze of its stone cover. The physical structure of the house expands and transforms through three hundred and fifty years into several opportunities. Since the seventies of the twentieth century, recovery works of their original architectural features culminating in 1982 were carried out in the colonial cloister. The numismatic sample illustrates several aspects that are directly related to the currency and history of the property and its various architectural interventions. At the Mint, the visitor will be able to permanently find the exhibitions of the art and numismatic collections of the Banco de la República, and several temporary exhibition halls. The mint was declared a National Monument of Colombia by decree 1584 of August 11, 1975.