City history
From the Muisca settlement of Bacatá to modern UTC-5 timekeeping, Bogotá's history spans colonial renamings, astronomical pioneers, and emergency time shifts.
Chapter one
Indigenous name
"Field for farming"
Originating from the Muisca word Bacatá, which referred to the primary agricultural settlement of the Muisca Confederation on the high plateau. Spanish conquistadors adapted the name when founding Santa Fe in 1538, eventually combining them into Santa Fe de Bogotá.
Field for farming
The central settlement of the southern Muisca ruler, located on the high savanna before the arrival of Spanish expeditions.
Holy Faith
Founded on August 6, 1538, by Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, initially named Santa Fe after the founder's birthplace in Spain.
Holy Faith of Bogotá
Adopted during the colonial era as the capital of the New Kingdom of Granada and later the Viceroyalty of New Granada.
Derived from Muisca Bacatá
Shortened officially to Bogotá following victory in the War of Independence to distance the new republic from colonial Spanish religious naming conventions.
Holy Faith of Bogotá
Re-established as Santa Fe de Bogotá under Article 322 of the 1991 Constitution of Colombia establishing the Capital District.
Bogotá, Capital District
Reverted to Bogotá by Constitutional Reform 1 of 2000, defining the formal name of the capital municipality as Bogotá, Capital District.
Chapter two
Colombia adopted a unified national standard time set to five hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (UTC-5), replacing local Bogotá Mean Time which was offset by UTC-4:56:16.
During a severe drought caused by El Niño, President César Gaviria implemented a temporary daylight saving shift to UTC-4 to reduce evening electricity consumption across Colombia.
Colombia concluded its eleven-month experiment with daylight saving time and restored UTC-5 as its permanent year-round standard time offset.
Chapter three
Initiated by José Celestino Mutis, the National Astronomical Observatory of Colombia was completed in Bogotá, serving as the earliest dedicated astronomical center built in the Americas.
Bogotá hosted the Great Pedaling Demonstration, closing major city roads to automobiles and founding the weekly Sunday Ciclovía urban recreation movement.
Bogotá inaugurated TransMilenio, a high-capacity bus rapid transit system that revolutionized public transportation and synchronized transit schedules across the capital district.
Colombia created the Instituto Nacional de Metrología in Bogotá, entrusting it with maintaining official national time using high-precision atomic frequency standards.