[2] In the Chibcha language of the Muisca, Chocontá means: "Farmlands of the good ally" or "Garden of the neighbour".

The Spanish conquistadors led by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada reached the Colombian highlands in 1537.

On 9 June 1537, Pentecostal day, the Spanish arrived in Chocontá and Father Fray Domingo de las Casas named it Pueblo del Espíritu Santo ("Town of the Holy Spirit") with a mass.

[3] In 1854 the presidential headquarters was located in Chocontá and on 21 April 1854 Tomás de Herrera was proclaimed president in the rectory of the town.

On 9 August 1819 at 2 pm liberator Simón Bolívar arrived to Chocontá and stayed to rest in what currently is the House of Culture after his triumph, defining the fate of the Colombian Republic.