Tequendama Hotel, Cultural property in Centro Internacional, Bogotá, Colombia.
Tequendama Hotel is a hotel in the San Diego neighborhood of Santa Fe, Bogotá, at the intersection of Tenth Avenue (Carrera Décima) and Twenty-Sixth Avenue. Its tall rectangular tower has a reddish-brown brick facade with evenly spaced vertical columns of windows; a lower flat-roofed section adjoins the base, and a white structure with a red illuminated "Tequendama" sign sits above the brickwork. It was the first building of the Centro Internacional Tequendama complex.
The Hotel Tequendama stands on the grounds of the former San Diego cloister, later used by the Superior School of War, the Military School and the Ministry of Defense. Its first stone was laid on 1 February 1950, and it opened on 17 May 1953 with a banquet attended by President Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez. It was the first building of the Centro Internacional Tequendama complex and the tallest in the city in the 1950s.
The name Tequendama comes from the Chibcha language of the Muisca, who lived on the Bogotá savanna before the Spanish conquest, and means "he who precipitates downward". The hotel opened on 17 May 1953 with a banquet attended by President Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez, and was first planned as Hotel Bochica. For over 50 years it was run by InterContinental, as Hotel InterContinental Tequendama until 2007, then as Crowne Plaza Tequendama.
The hotel stands at the corner of Carrera Décima (Tenth Avenue) and Avenida Veintiséis in the San Diego neighbourhood of Santa Fe, Bogotá. The 1967–1970 extension moved the main entrance onto Carrera Décima and gave the building its T-shaped plan, so arrivals now face that avenue. Since the 2025 renovation the premises are split between two hotels, Four Points by Sheraton Tequendama and Tequendama Bogotá, each with its own reception.
The hotel was first planned as Hotel Bochica, and its foundation stone was laid on 1 February 1950. It opened on 17 May 1953 with a banquet attended by President Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez. The tower was built in reinforced concrete, and its speed of construction was notable for Colombian engineering at the time.
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