Tunja, city and capital of Boyacá departamento, north-central Colombia. It lies in the high valley of the Teatinos, or Boyacá, River. Founded in 1539 by Captain Gonzalo Suárez Rendón, the settlement was originally called Hunza by the local Chibcha Indians. In 1819 it served as Simón Bolívar’s operating base for his victory over the Spanish at the Battle of Boyacá, 5 miles (8 km) to the south.
The city is a communications, commercial, and agricultural centre and is a market for the cattle country of the Llanos region to the east. Gold and emerald mines are in the vicinity. Many of the city’s colonial buildings survive, including the 16th-century churches of Santo Domingo and San Laureano. The Pedagogical and Technological University of Colombia was founded in Tunja in 1953. The city is situated on the Pan-American Highway linking Cúcuta and Bogotá; railway connections are with Bogotá to the southwest. Pop. (2007 est.) 152,197.