History of Aguachica

Spanish conquest and colonization

During the first decades of the 18th century, the area was established as the Haciendade San Roque by the Spanish and was owned by Don Antonio Garia de Bonilla, but due to pests and illnesses the settlement was moved a few hundred meters to the south. By 1722 the settlement had grown in the middle of an hacienda predominantly owned by Don Casimiro Ramos de Barahoja. The settlement was serving now as a rest area for merchants traveling to and from the nearby fluvial port town of Gamarra and Ocaña(present-day Department of North Santander).

On August 17, 1748 the settlement was officially founded by Jose Lazaro de Rivera and established as a Roman Catholic