SUESCA
Suesca is a municipality of Cundinamarca (Colombia), located in the province of Almeida, 59 km northeast of Bogota. It limits to the North with Cucunubá and Lenguazaque, to the South with Gachancipá and Sesquilé, to the East with Chocontá and to the West with Tausa and Nemocón. The average altitude of the municipality is 2584 m. n. m., and the climate is temperate, with an average annual temperature of 14.3 ° C.
HISTORY
In pre-Columbian times, Suesca was one of the eleven uta (towns, or villages) that made up the zybyn (clan) of Guatavita, in the territory of the Zipazgo (Muisca Confederation).
In 1536, at the behest of Don Pedro Fernández de Lugo, then governor of Santa Marta, the lawyer Don Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada undertook his expedition with a view to discovering the source of the Rio Grande de La Magdalena. Following the course of the river, it reached Tora de las Barrancas Bermejas (now Barrancabermeja); Near this site they found an Indian who told them about the riches of the Muisca Confederation and the good climate of the interior lands.
Then they left the Magdalena lands and ascended the Eastern Cordillera, passing through lands of what is now the department of Boyacá, to enter Cundinamarca through the municipalities of Susa, Guachetá, Lenguazaque, Cucunubá and Suesca.
On March 14, 1537, Jiménez de Quesada arrived in this last indigenous village, and was amazed by the goodness of its inhabitants and the beauty of its rocks, as well as its climate and tranquility.
Suesca was par excellence the resting place of the conqueror, due to its healthy climate and the sympathy and hospitality of its inhabitants. After having been named "Adelantado of the New Kingdom of Granada" by the King of Spain, Quesada decided to stay some time in this region, during which he wrote the Historical Compendium, or Ratos de Suesca, in which he narrated the history of his discoveries and conquests (work lost to the present).
In 1565 resolved and ordered to move the hamlet to where it is today, to avoid the serious consequences suffered by the Indians with the flooding of the Funza River (former name of the Bogotá River).
In the visit of the Prosecutor Moreno y Escandón, dated February 21, 1779, there is a census of 704 Indians.
The church is one of the few that have been respected its antiquity and style within the reconstructions and improvements that have been made, as in 1834, when the bulrush tower was changed for which it has today, and around 1957 It was veneered in stone.
ECONOMY
Most of the population of Suesca works in the cultivation of flowers, in companies located in the plain of the municipality and near the river Bogota, in areas of higher altitude is predominant dairy farming, and in smaller proportions agriculture and mining Traditionally represented in the extraction of coal and clay for semi-artisan brick manufacturing. The only large-scale industry is a cement factory located near the urban center of the population.
Another source of income is tourism, its majority revolves around the rocks of Suesca and extreme sports such as climbing and mountain biking.