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Barichara is a small colonial town in the Santander department of north-central Colombia, widely considered one of the most beautiful towns in the country. Whitewashed adobe and sandstone buildings, red-tile roofs, and cobblestone streets line a compact hillside town center that looks today largely as it did centuries ago -- a result of the economic slowdown that spared it from the newer construction that changed many other Colombian towns through the 20th century.
Barichara has been formally protected as a national monument, and today draws a mix of weekend visitors from Bogotá, artists, and a growing community of long-term expatriate and retiree residents drawn to its quiet pace. The town is known for its stoneworking and guitar-making traditions, both still practiced by local artisans whose workshops are open to visitors.
Barichara's own main square, the Parque Principal, and the Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepción facing it are the natural starting point for exploring the town, but much of Barichara's appeal is in simply walking its cobblestone streets past whitewashed facades rather than any single must-see site. The Camino Real trail to Guane is the town's signature outdoor activity, and several viewpoints on the town's edges look out over the surrounding canyon and valley landscape. Numerous small artisan workshops -- stoneworkers and guitar-makers especially -- are open to visitors along the way.
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.