Ortega is a town and municipality in the Tolima department of Colombia. Ortega is located at altitudes from 402 to 2687 m above sea level, and has a surface area of 945.93 km2. The average temperature ranges from 14 to 26 C.
In 1572, a group composed of captain Diego Bocanegra, Luis de Morales, Vicente Valenzuela, Ambrosio de Morales Bocanegra, and forty soldiers that Diego Bocanegra had taken to conquer the native Pijao, established a town named Santiago de la Frontera. That first foundation was abandoned, due to Diego Bocanegra leaving for the troops commanded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, following a high court's mandate. In 1586, Diego Bocanegra undertook a second foundation and named the settlement Medina de las Torres. Because of the attacks by the Pijao on Medina de las Torres, the town disappeared. A third foundation was also unsuccessful because of the attacks by the Pijao.
Centuries later, on November 30, 1821, the Catholic Father Nicolás Ramírez rebuilt the town and named it Ortega, in an area of 98 km2.
