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Parque Ricaurte is a small park in Villa de Leyva. In the center is a monument dedicated to Antonio Ricaurte, a hero in the independence of Colombia and Venezuela.
During the Battle of San Mateo in what is now Venezuela, Simón Bolívar put Ricaurte and 50 soldiers in charge of his estate. On March 25, 1814, Spanish troops had taken control of most of the estate. Ricaurte, who realized that the battle would be lost if the royalists controlled the estate, ordered his troops to leave. He then lit a barrel of gunpowder inside the ammunitions depot in the main house, blowing himself up and killing several royalist soldiers.
Bolívar took advantage of the chaos by launching a counterattack. He retook the estate and won the battle in a rout. For his valor, Ricaurte is immortalized in the final verse of Colombia’s national anthem.
On the northern side of the park is a pleasant garden with benches and a bust of Ricaurte in the center.
Antonio Ricaurte House Museum
June 10, 1786, Ricaurte was born in a small house on the southern corner of the park. The house is now a museum, Antonio Ricaurte House Museum (Casa Museo Antonio Ricaurte). Admission is free.
After entering the courtyard, someone will lead you to the first room, which has information on Ricaurte’s life. On the table in the center is a box of dirt from San Mateo, probably containing the ashes of Ricaurte.
Next, you can visit the kitchen, which displays common items used in kitchens during the early 19th century.
The third room contains a military museum run by the Colombian Air Force. One attached room displays bedroom furniture typical in the early 1800s. The other is the room where Ricaurte was born.
Finally, there’s a beautiful garden you can walk through. A well sits in the center, but it has been filled in.
Church of San Agustín
Across from the house is the Church of San Agustín (Iglesia de San Agustín), founded in 1594 by Augustinian Friar Mateo Delgado, the personal physician of King Felipe II of Spain. It was abandoned in 1835 and sat empty for 40 years before being converted into a school. This former church is now the home of the Humboldt Institute (Instituto Humboldt), which is a biological research organization named for Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. Humboldt spent a significant part of 1801 in Colombia doing research.
When we visited, on one side of the courtyard there was a display about biological research projects in Colombia. The courtyard itself is beautiful and is full of plants and trees. The original church looked like it was being used as a conference room
