Bogota Blogger

La Candelaria is the oldest neighborhood in Bogota, so of course the most historic also.  It’s the area around the spot where the city was settled by the Spanish in 1538, which is roughly near the Plaza Bolivar (the main square in the city), at the foot of the mountain below the peaks of Monserrate and Guadalupe. This is probably the most touristic area of the city, with a concentration of cathedrals and churches, colonial architecture, government buildings and museums that is thicker than anywhere else in the city. People live in the Candelaria also, and there are hotels and restaurants and some night life, though, as the city center, it’s also a little dangerous, especially after dark.

Tourist Attractions

There are tons of tourist things to do in the Candelaria, and walking around looking at the architecture is probably number one. The Teatro Colon (Columbus Theatre), a theatre and opera house opened in 1905, and the hotel near it are a good place to start. Opera, when in season, costs about $15 US, by the way, for the least expensive seats.  That’s about 15% of the cheapest seats in the US, I think. Last year I saw The Barber of Seville.

Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango is another big cultural spot, with a few museums as part of the complex and in the neighborhood. The Banco de la Republica museum includes the Donacion Botero (Botero Donation), which is 200 works that were owned by Colombia’s most famous artist, including many European and North American masterpieces and over a hundred of his own works. The Museum of Modern Art is also not far (about 12 blocks, so not technically in La Candelaria).

There are all sorts of classes of hotels here, some very expensive and upscale and lots of tourist class places, as well. There are a fair number of hostels in La Candelaria, and I suppose the Platypus is among the most famous. It’s also a great place to get tourist advice, because the owner probably knows as much about Bogota as anyone in the city (and he’s German).

Colonial Architecture

This district is loaded with colonial style buildings, and there are very few neighborhoods in Bogota with so many old buildings. The city has expanded drastically in the past 50 years, and this accounts for the fact that there are few really historic neighborhoods.  Colonial architecture has a lot to do with wooden balconies and large wooden windows and doors on buildings, and usually the buildings are brightly painted. Many buidings have been renovated, but there are also quite a few that still need major work. The district, like lots of districts in Bogota, is a mixture of gentrified and slum properties side-by-side. The streets and sidewalks are not in such great shape, but that’s standard for Bogota, and things in La Candelaria seem to be improving all the time.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 5th, 2007 at 8:51 am and is filed under Neighborhoods, Tourist Stuff in Bogota. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.