A visit to Quinta de Bolívar museum

One of the museums we visited during our stay in Bogotá last month was the Quinta de Bolívar. We went there the same day we went to Monserrate, as this colonial-style house where Simon Bolivar once lived is located on the slopes of Monserrate hill.

It is very close to La Candelaria and the historic center. That day, we got there in an app taxi, and the journey from where we were in the north of the city took us just under an hour to the museum at noon.

The Quinta de Bolivar is a colonial house in Bogota, Colombia, that served as a residence to Simon Bolivar in the capital after the war of independence. It is now used as a museum dedicated to Bolivar's life and times. Source

The origins of the house date back to the 17th century, and over the years, the house had different owners. Simón Bolívar lived in the house after the independence of Colombia, at that time Nueva Granada.

Finally in 1919, when the property was again up for sale, the Colombian Historic Society and the Embellishment Society of Bogota began a national fund-raising campaign in order to buy it. After it had been purchased as a national monument, it became a museum with artifacts from the independence times including objects belonging to Simon Bolivar. Source

The gardens, as far as we learned, retain much of what they were at the time when Bolívar occupied the house.

The house is surrounded by vegetation as it is immersed in the foothills of the mountains.

There are many flowers.

And the gardens are quite well-kept despite the immense amount of vegetation.

During part of his stay in Santa Fe de Bogotá, Bolívar was accompanied by Manuela Sáenz in this house.

She was an Ecuadorian heroine who played an important role in the independence not only of Ecuador but also of other Latin American countries. She was Simón Bolívar's lover, and it was in this house that Manuela Sáenz, as the story goes, saved Bolívar from an attempt on his life in 1828, which led Bolívar himself to call her "La Libertadora del Libertador" (The Liberator's Liberator). So it is not surprising that when you enter the house, the first thing you see is a small hall room with a portrait of Manuela Sáenz.

There was a room recreating the main hall, where parties used to take place.

Also, there was the main dining room.

The main room is also recreated. And there are also allusions to the size of the bed and the height of Bolívar. A fact that has always aroused much curiosity.

On leaving the main house building, we reach the servant's area and the kitchen.

There is a room that belonged to Bolivar's servant. As a curious fact, I learned on this visit that Jose Palacios, as he was called, had been a servant of Bolivar's family from a very young age. And he had promised Bolivar's mother on her deathbed that he would always look after him. The curious thing about all this is that he always stayed close to Bolivar during his life. He was with him when he died. And he even accompanied the remains of the Liberator when they were transferred to Venezuela years after his death in Santa Marta, Colombia. According to the story outlined in the Quinta, José Palacios died shortly after Bolívar's remains were interred in Caracas.

Then there were the rooms of the kitchen. It reminded me of the kitchen of a colonial house museum here.

And an antique Tinajero called my attention. The Tinajero was used to filter the water. Nowadays here, in many haciendas, it is common to come across one. But many are only used as decorative pieces of furniture.

In front of the kitchen rooms, there is a vegetable garden with a well.

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Nearby were the stables. At that time, the stables were not only used for the horses to sleep. But also for the lower-ranking servants.

Passing through the orchard and the back garden, we came to a new building where they hold temporary exhibitions. There was an exhibition of portraits of Bolívar by different artists. I didn't take any photos because the lighting in the room didn't lend itself to it, but it is incredible to see how the figure of Bolívar was depicted with such different features depending on the artist.

We then walked back the way we had come to go to the front garden of the house and leave the museum.

At the exit of the Quinta, there was an exhibition of canons from the time of the independence struggles.

We didn't stop there for long, as we planned to take the cable car up to Monserrate to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.

Thank you for reading!

_{All images and writing are my own unless otherwise stated.}

© CoquiCoin

October 13, 2022