Housed in a 7,200 m2 four-storey building located in an upscale area of Bogotá with vast avenues, top-class hotels and restaurants, and modern shopping centers, the BARRAQUER CLINIC and the BARRAQUER INSTITUTE OF AMERICA provide top-quality visual care services.

Founded by PROFESSOR JOSÉ IGNACIO BARRAQUER MONER, the Clinic was inaugurated in Bogotá on December 20th, 1968 by Colombian President Carlos Lleras Restrepo, with the benediction of Cardinal Concha Córdoba.

The BARRAQUER CLINIC, together with its EYE SURGERY INSTITUTE is in charge of providing ophthalmologic care to the patients. This service comprises five areas: Ophthalmology, Optometry, In-hospital Care, Surgery and Ophthalmologic emergencies.

By Professor José I. Barraquer M. (Deceased)

In 1964, when we started the project of building our new facilities on 100th Street, our friends and colleagues were stunned and amazed at our desire to set up a Clinic and medical offices in the northern Bogotá where all you could see were cows and a four-lane street with practically no access or communication. My answer always was that the city was growing and, by the time the construction work was completed, 100th Street would be a very important and central avenue. Luckily, I was not wrong.

In order to undertake the construction project we created Oftalmos S.A. a corporate organization with five million pesos in equity assets. The 9.143,70 m2 site was purchased from a developing firm called Urbanización Chicó Norte Ltda., on October 16th, 1963, and the operation was recorded at the office of the first Notary Public. Architect Alvaro Hermida and developer George Moggio further developed the drawings designed by myself and doctor Hernando Henao. The work started in April 1964, and His Excellency President Carlos Lleras Restrepo inaugurated the new building was inaugurated on December 20th, 1968, with the benediction of Cardinal Concha Córdoba. Many outstanding personalities were present during this inaugural ceremony, including former Presidents Eduardo Santos, Alberto Lleras Camargo, Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez, Gabriel París, Darío Echandía, the Spanish Embassador, Joaquín Ruiz Jiménez, as well as many national and international personalities of the medical world and relatives of mine who came from Spain, among them Doña Josefa, my mother, and my brother Joaquín.