A Day Trip to Ráquira: Visiting Colombia’s Famous Pottery Town

While enjoying a pizza on our first evening in Villa de Leyva, we struck up a conversation with a friendly local man, Pedro, at the next table. Before long, he offered to take us on a day trip to a nearby town he described as especially pretty. We happily agreed. A couple of days later, we met up and began driving westward out of town. It was only along the way that I learned where we were headed: Ráquira—Colombia’s ceramics capital.

Colorful pottery and handcrafted decorations displayed inside a ceramics shop in Ráquira, Boyacá, Colombia — Inside one of Ráquira’s colorful ceramics shops

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Ráquira is a small town, located 24 km southwest of Villa de Leyva, known nationally for its vibrant ceramics and deep-rooted artisan traditions. It has been a center for pottery since pre-Columbian times, with techniques passed down through generations. Despite its growing popularity, Ráquira retains a small-town feel and continues to function as a working craft hub rather than a polished tourist village. Its name comes from the Chibcha language of the Muisca people and is said to mean “City of Pots.”

Colorful colonial buildings with painted murals in the center of Ráquira, Boyacá, Colombia — Streets full of color

We parked near the center and set off on foot. Ráquira has a simple, almost disarmingly compact layout—a handful of streets arranged around a small core, with a shallow river quietly bisecting the town. It’s easy to get your bearings within minutes. What immediately stood out was the architecture: brightly painted houses in bold reds, blues, yellows, and greens, a sharp contrast to the restrained whitewashed aesthetic of Villa de Leyva. At the heart of it all lay the central square, anchored by the church, modest in scale but very much the town’s focal point.

Stone fountain with a ceramic statue of a urinating nude child in the main square of Ráquira, Boyacá, Colombia — Crass

Despite it not being a Sunday—when the main market usually brings peak crowds—the place felt lively. Locals and visitors drifted in and out of shops, artisans worked behind open doors, and the streets buzzed with an unforced sense of activity. Pottery shops appeared everywhere, from small storefronts spilling onto the pavement to cavernous spaces hidden behind unassuming entrances. Ráquira’s reputation as Colombia’s ceramics capital felt entirely justified.

Colorful ceramic pottery displayed outside a handicrafts shop in Ráquira, Boyacá, Colombia — The gardener’s paradise

Pedro led us into his favorite shop, explaining—half-jokingly—that he was obeying his wife’s instructions to buy a couple of new pots for her flowers. The place was quite labyrinthine, unfolding room after room of ceramic abundance. Shelves and floors were stacked with vividly glazed pots, oversized urns, plates painted with floral and geometric motifs, whimsical figurines, animal-shaped vessels, and decorative tiles glowing in earthy reds, deep blues, and sun-baked yellows. It felt less like a shop than a maze of color and texture, each corner revealing something new.

Pottery has defined Ráquira for centuries. Long before the Spanish arrived, the Muisca people were already producing ceramic wares here, drawing on the region’s rich clay deposits. That lineage continues today, not as a museum piece but as a living craft—functional, commercial, and deeply embedded in everyday life. Many families still work in ceramics, and the town remains a place of production as much as display.

Ceramic pots, vases, and handcrafted decorations inside a pottery shop in Ráquira, Boyacá, Colombia — A maze of handmade ceramics

After wandering a bit more, we stopped for a coffee near the square, watched the slow rhythm of the town for a while, and then headed back to the car. Not long after, we were driving back to Villa de Leyva—an easy, rewarding detour that added color, texture, and a human scale to our stay in the region.

Accommodation & Activities in Villa de Leyva

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