05 · Architecture, the square and basket weaving

Colourful streets, old stories

Wooden balconies, double doors and hand-woven baskets: Filandia makes sense on foot.

A white camper van parked on a Filandia street lined with houses with colourful balconies — A Filandia street, balcony after balcony.

Filandia was founded in 1878, during the Antioquian colonisation, and keeps many of its bahareque houses — wood, bamboo and earth — with balconies and painted façades. Bidea is one of them, so the walk starts at the front door.

Two blocks away is the main square, with its church and the Willys jeeps leaving for the countryside and for Salento. The Calle del Tiempo Detenido gathers craft shops and cafés.

And then there’s the basket. Filandia is known for its bejuco-vine weavers, a craft born from the coffee harvest. At the “Del Bejuco al Canasto” interpretation centre you can watch artisans at work, and every August the Fiestas del Canasto dress the town’s balconies.