BOGOTÁ, ARCHDIOCESE OF. — In the Republic of Colombia, department of Cundinamarca. Primatial see and capital of the state, BOGOTÁ is situated at 2,640 m. on the edge of a vast high plateau encircled by high mountains. It has approximately 325,000 inhabitants. Established as a bishopric in 1562, it was raised to metropolitan status by Pius IV on 24 March 1564 under the name of Santa Fé de BOGOTÁ. Until the beginning of the present century, the ecclesiastical province of BOGOTÁ encompassed the entire territory of the present republic, plus Panama. Now, after the erection of other metropolitan sees, it comprises the north-central and northeastern part of the republic, with four suffragan sees: Ibagué, Nueva Pamplona, Socorro, and Tunja. The archdiocese covers an area of 22,350 sq. km. and has 1,340,000 inhabitants, almost all Catholic, divided into 147 parishes. There are 192 diocesan priests and 358 religious priests. It has one major seminary and two minor ones.
Alongside the progress of ecclesiastical organization, the advancement of studies kept pace. First, the Dominicans in their convent of the Rosary, erected in 1550, established the University of St. Thomas with all canonical faculties, solemnly confirmed by Gregory XIII in the 1580s. The Jesuits, for their part, established in the country, founded the College of St. Bartholomew in 1604, which in 1605 also had attached to it the Conciliar Seminary, then founded; in 1621 Gregory XV erected the Universidad Javeriana there, which lasted until 1767. Owing to political disturbances and the consequent suppressions, the two institutions underwent various vicissitudes; until the Jesuits, having resumed the College of St. Bartholomew in 1928, restored the Universidad Javeriana in 1931, recognized by the government in 1933; in 1937 it was erected as a Catholic and Pontifical University. Since 1933 it has published the Revista Javeriana.
Among the religious monuments, special mention should be made of the Cathedral, one of the most beautiful churches in Latin America; the churches of St. Francis, St. Ignatius, St. Augustine, La Tercera, El Sagrario, La Candelaria, and St. Dominic.