Stories of Pamplona, Our Epic Town

And when you walk through the streets of Pamplona—streets that reveal stories of the past through their grand houses and museums, in the architecture of their churches, and keep the memory of the Hulago alive in the imposing mountains rising from the beautiful Eastern Cordillera— they—who inhabited the lands of Norte de Santander 1,000 years B.C.—left the present-day inhabitants a legacy of a hospitable and kind culture rooted in the nature of their Chibcha-speaking community. These indigenous people, who by 1530 would be given the name “Chitareros” by their conquerors, would from that moment on be forced to undergo a process of mestizaje and conquest because their lands contained the metal that would spark the greed of the Spanish…

Pamplona, named in honor of the capital of Navarre, the homeland of its founders, Ortún Velazco de Velásques and Pedro de Ursúa, who established a colonial culture originating in Spain. On November 1, 1549, it was declared a city by royal decree; since this date coincided with the Feast of All Saints, it took on the first of many titles: “Valley of the Holy Spirit.”

From then on, the Spanish divided the city into blocks—a geographical layout that remains to this day—replacing the huts made of straw and wattle-and-daub. They began constructing beautiful mansions and majestic religious buildings that earned the city a new name, “Mitred City,” due to the solemnity they imparted. The new residents of Pamplona, who controlled the gold mined from the hills of Santurbán and Vetas, began the evangelization and conquest of the Hulago Valley. During this time, locals gave the city another nickname, “Pamplonilla la loca” (Crazy Little Pamplona), due to the Spaniards’ feverish spending and extravagance fueled by the riches they extracted from the land.

On January 16, 1644, Pamplona was struck by an earthquake that destroyed much of the colonial city. Although many mansions—which were converted into museums or preserved by their owners—still stand today, the chapels that survived the quake were restored, and others, such as the Santa Clara Cathedral, were rebuilt.

The Spanish maintained their rule until July 4, 1810, when Doña Águeda Gallardo de Villamizar snatched the staff of office from one of the founders, triggering the heroic event that propelled the country toward revolution, which was taken up by Santa Fe de Bogotá on July 20 of that same year. For this, it was awarded the title of “Patriot City” by the liberator Simón Bolívar. Subsequently, the “City of Mist” would become the epicenter for those planning the battles that would grant the country its full independence. These events led to the Province of Pamplona becoming the birthplace of Colombia’s first constitution, the “Constitution of Cúcuta of 1821.”