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Barichara was founded in the early 18th century, growing as a small agricultural and tobacco-trading town within colonial Santander. Its name is widely believed to come from a Guane word referring to the sandstone-rich terrain surrounding it -- a link to the Indigenous Guane people who inhabited this valley long before Spanish colonization, and whose descendant settlement, Guane, still sits a few hours' walk from Barichara along the old stone Camino Real trail.
Through the 19th and much of the 20th century, Barichara's economy grew slowly, with limited investment in new construction -- an economic disadvantage at the time that, decades later, meant the town's colonial architecture survived largely intact rather than being replaced. Formal recognition of that architecture followed in the 20th century, when Barichara was declared a national monument, protecting its townscape from further alteration and setting the stage for its rediscovery by artists and tourists in more recent decades.