Bogota: to live through the culture

Plaza of Bolivar, Bogota
In Bogota, the capital of Colombia, located to 2.600 meters on the level of the sea is lived and breathes culture. In this metropolis founded in 1538, they harmonize past and present to offer to it visitors the most varied artistic expressions that go from exhibitions in museums, theatre, dance, music, to the most splendid gastronomy.
From remote times, the Bogota has been characterized for enjoying a rich social-cultural context, product of the convergence of all the contemporary and ancient cultures of Colombia. As result, in the city one finds, besides a present full of life, an ancient past represented in architecture, works and historical elements that rest in it museums.
This city surprises its visitors in every corner and always it offers them something to see and to do. And it is that in Bogota it is:

58 museums, 62 galleries of art, 45 theatres, more than 40 cinemas, 161 national monuments, 75 big sports and mechanical parks, 44 stores of crafts, 28 churches of tourist interest. Cathedral Given priority of Colombia All that complemented with:

33 libraries, 94 malls 62 centers of conventions and 25 universities.
Theatre, concerts, poetry, cinema, classic ballet, contemporary dance and the crowded events outdoors, they find in Bogota a scene(stage) to satisfy all the preferences.

Bogota is also a home of artistic expressions outdoors of the height of: The Latin-American Festival of Theatre of Bogota, the biggest theatrical holiday(party) of the world, Rock to the Park, Jazz to the Park, Festival of Cinema of Bogota, University Festival of Contemporary Dance, Ballet to the Park, Opera and Operetta to the Park, Festival of Paces and popular Traditions of the world, To feed, between others. These spaces of public character and free access, they do of the culture in the capital of Colombia a basic right of citizens and visitors.
In Bogota the whole intangible patrimony represented in the customs and own manifestations of the multiethnic population, complement each other with enclosures in which the culture rests as if it had stopped the time. Monuments exist to the memory(report) personified by the churches of the XVIIth and XVIIIth century, the religious and pagan places of peregrination, and architectural constructions that constitute a great patrimonial wealth.

The visitors to Bogota are dazzled by the acclaimed Cathedral of Zipaquirá's salt in the sheet of Bogota, Monserrate's Hill, the Theatre Colon and colonial houses of the neighborhood The Candelaria, that they remain as were when the city was small and of provincial customs.


historical center of the city
Walking along the historical center of the city is an experience that invites the visitors to it was transporting to the past, while they live intensely through the present. His streets have been a witness of the step of the centuries for the capital and every window, every door, every corner has a history that to tell.
Today, the center is an area of the political and legislative activities of the country. There they find Nariño's House, The congress of the Republic, The Supreme Court of Justice and the Major Mayoralty of Bogota, which constitute, for his history and his tradition, a part of the cultural memory of the city.
Museums in Bogota for all the tastes Tourists of all the continents visit the Museum of the Gold, to know the pre-Columbian exchequers that he guards, inside these the famous Raft Muisca. In 2009, the museum opened his doors renewed to present, in his 13 thousand square meters of construction, the jewels and exchequers of the cultures Quimbaya, Calima, Tayrona, Sinú, Muisca, Tolima, Tumaco and Malagana,and others
The Museum of Gold does part of the Cultural Set of the Bank of the Republic that Luis Ángel Arango groups, in addition, to the Library, the Room of Temporary Exhibitions, the Collection of Musical Instruments, the Room of Concerts, the House of Mint, the Museum Boatman and the Museum of Art of the Banco of the Republic, where one finds the room of religious art that exhibits in a permanent way the custodies The Lettuce, The Precious one and of The Nuns of the order of St Clare.
A bit more towards the north of the city one finds the National Museum of Colombia that has the most ancient finds of the man exposed in his rooms in the Colombian territory (10.000 a.c.), scientific instruments, ceramics, furniture, portraits, flags, pieces of national art, between others.
Nowadays, there are opened 17 rooms of permanent exhibition and additional the Room of Temporary Exhibitions, located in the first floor(flat), which offers a constant programming of exhibitions on different topics and authors of the history, the anthropology and the national and international art.
The National Museum of Colombia is considered to be the most ancient of the country and is one of the most ancient of America. It was founded in 1823 and his current facilities are what was a penitentiary of walled walls. In 1975 National Monument was declared and in 2009 it is celebrated his 185 years of existence, dedicated to preserving and spreading the cultural values of Colombia.

The house Museum, another source to know the cultural patrimony of Bogota
Between most emphasized in Bogota they find the House Museum Fifth of Bolivar, The National Mint, the Boatman's Museum, the House of the Vase or Museum of July 20, the House Enrique Grau Araujo, the House of the Poetry Forest, the House of the Wise person Francisco Jose De Caldas and the House Museum Francisco De Paula Santander.
In the main these houses museum evoke the génesis of the city, his principal figures and the objects typical of the epoch. For this reason, to visit them is to travel years to know behind little our past.
And as sample of which Bogota is a city that is kept to the forefront there is the Museum of Modern Art of Bogota or MAMBO. Founded in 1963 and inaugurated with the exhibition "It" "Falls down" of the teacher Juan Antonio Roda, nowadays it possesses a patrimony of 2200 works. In this museum it is possible to experience the Colombian art from the modernity with representative works as Our lady of Fátima, of Fernando Botero, Álvaro Barrios's engravings, Feliza's bed, And one of Beatriz's Gonzalez furniture.
The museums of Bogota are a scene(stage) for all the public ones. For the children Maloka is - Interactive Center of Science and Technology, which aim is to allow that the visitors should explore, know, learn and amuse themselves across technological, scientific, cultural, educational and recreative instruments for the visitors of all the ages.
Maloka possesses rooms of exhibition, a square with show of sources, store, restaurant, Internet café and a Cinema I Tame, the first theatre of giant format of South America that offers a fascinating experience of light and sound.
This one is only a sample of what is cultural Bogota. Besides the museums, festivals, you marry museum, events, interactive centers, parks, theatre, dances and artistic pieces, the people who lives in the capital are a fundamental prop of this city that lives and breathes culture.

mOrE LinKs:
www.bogotaturismo.gov.co/
http://www.colombia.travel/en/international-tourist/where-to-go/bogota-culture
www.culturarecreacionydeporte.gov.co/
http://www.fukl.edu.co/index.php/component/content/article/364

vIdEoS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPOkkkxV6gg