![]() It is claimed that the first ever statue of South America’s liberator, Simón Bolívar, stands here. The heart of the city and government is Plaza Bolívar, a good starting point for exploring the colonial district. Overlooking the bridge at Boyacá is a large monument to Bolívar there are several other monuments, an exhibition hall and a restaurant at the site, too. Four days later, Bolívar entered Bogotá as the liberator of Colombia. Only 50 royalists escaped, and when these told their tale in Bogotá, the Viceroy Samao fled in such haste that he left half a million pesos of the royal funds. ![]() With the loss of only 13 patriots killed and 53 wounded, Bolívar’s men captured 1600 royalist soldiers and 39 officers. Despite the strength of their position, the Spanish were routed at the first attack and disintegrated. Where to spot Simón Boyacá Bridge, Colombiaĭescending from the Andes into Colombia in 1819, Bolívar’s route to Bogotá was blocked by the royalists at a bridge crossing the Río Boyacá, 16km south of Tunja. Bolívar was president of Gran Colombia (which incorporated Panama, Ecuador and Venezuela) from 1819 to 1830, but died of tuberculosis that year. Following the liberation of Colombia, Venezuela followed two years later, then Ecuador in 1822 and Peru in 1824. He entered the capital on 10 August, to be hailed as El Libertador. Setting out from Mantecal, Venezuela on 26 May, he marched a small, ill-equipped band of patriot soldiers through swamps during the wet season, across the Andes and through the bleak, freezing Páramo de Pisba before descending to defeat Spanish royalist forces at Vargas swamp and – the pivotal battle on 7 August 1819 – at Boyacá Bridge, leaving the way clear to Bogotá. In 1817, though, Generals José de San Martín and Bernardo O’Higgins led troops over the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile, and two years later Bolívar achieved a similar feat. Despite early successes, in the mid-1810s Spain held onto its South American colonies. From an aristocratic family, he finished his schooling in Spain while in Europe he saw that Spanish imperial power was waning, and in 1807 returned to Venezuela, beginning his campaign for independence the following year. Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios Ponte y Blanco was born in 1783 in Caracas, in the Spanish-ruled Captaincy of Venezuela, not long after it separated from the larger Viceroyalty of New Granada. But who was he – and where can you follow in his footsteps? Bolívar in brief ![]() Two centuries ago, in August 1819, the patriot commander Simón Bolívar defeated royalist Spanish forces to liberate Colombia and kick-start the South American independence movement.
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