Architecture of Cesar Department

The roof had a frame of solid sticks forming a cone and covered tightly in grass or palm branches.

Indigenous like the Arhuacos had developed villages in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range which interconnected their houses through a system of stone roads and steps.

Upon the arrival of the Spanish in the region during the early 16th Century, their construction techniques were used for their new settlements which were isolated haciendas in the middle of a large extension of land.

Villages had very few houses and were usually built by a church and a commons plaza which was used for the pasture of the horses and cattle.

Houses usually had a single or two floors, squared with a garden in the middle, surrounded by numerous rooms.