Located some 115 km north of Bogotá, Chiquinquirá is situated 2,556 metres (8,386 ft) above sea level and has a yearly average temperature 58 °F (14 °C) The name Chiquinquirá comes from Chibcha and means "Place of swamps covered with fog".

It is home to the Basílica de Chiquinquirá, which houses the image of the Virgen de Chiquinquirá, the patroness saint of Colombia.

Chiquinquirá is a major point of religious pilgrimage.

[5] In November 1967, 81 people in Chiquinquirá, most of them children, were fatally poisoned and hundreds more became seriously ill after eating bread that had been made with flour that had been contaminated with a powdered insecticide.

[6][7] Murder charges would later be filed against a Bogotá truck driver who had delivered the flour and the owner of the bakery that had baked and sold the bread to local residents.