Granada is a town and municipality in the

Meta Department Meta () is a department of Colombia. It is close to the geographic center of the country, to the east of the Andean mountains. A large portion of the department, which is also crossed by the Meta River, is covered by a grassland plain known as ...

, Colombia. The municipality has an area of and a population of 68,876. The municipality is located between 3° 26" latitude north and 73° 43" longitude west and between above sea level. The daily mean air temperature varies between . Annual

rainfall Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water ...

is between . The town is connected to

Santa Fé de Bogotá Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnigh ...

along a road and lies about from the regional capital

Villavicencio Villavicencio () is a city and municipality in Colombia. Capital of Meta Department, it was founded on April 6, 1840. The city had an urban population of approximately 531,275 inhabitants in 2018.https://www.dane.gov.co/files/varios/informacion ...

Symbols

Shield

The shield is made up of two axes, a symbol of

colonization Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...

. The first appears in the year 1939, when the population of what is now Granada began. In the second the date 1956, when it was erected as a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality ...

. A ribbon with the inscription "Land of work for men of peace" connects the two axes. The shield, in the upper part, is divided into three parts, each one with the different colors of the flag. First we see the white dove symbolizing

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

, in the center the open pomegranate that symbolizes the agricultural variety and finally in the third there are two hands intertwined as a welcome to the visitors. At the bottom is the

Guillermo León Valencia Guillermo León Valencia Muñoz (27 April 1909 – 4 November 1971) was a Colombian politician, lawyer and diplomat who served as the 21st President of Colombia from 1962 to 1966. Personal life Valencia was born in Popayán, Cauca on April 27 ...

bridge.

Flag

The

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

has three equal stripes of green, white and red. The green represents

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...

as the main

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with t ...

line of the region, the white represents the peaceful vocation of its people, and the red represents the blood of the patriots from the plains who gave us freedom.

History

Foundation: June 23, 1953

In the

of Granada, there were three indigenous cultures: the Guayupe (the largest group), the Sae and the Operigua, who did not have their territory well defined; They only presented language and cultural differences, which were not studied, as they yielded to the pressure of the first European colonizations, promoted by the companies that exploited rubber, cinchona, balata and wood. Granada, previously called Boquemonte, as it is the entrance to a royal road through the forests of the plain of the

Ariari river The Ariari River is a river of Colombia, located entirely within the Meta Department. Part of the Orinoco River basin, it merges with the Guayabero River to forms the Guaviare River The Guaviare is a tributary of the Orinoco in Colombia. It ...

; lived the same population dynamics as the Orinoquía, a natural region known as the Eastern Plains, made up of the political-administrative divisions corresponding to the departments of

Meta Meta (from the Greek μετά, '' meta'', meaning "after" or "beyond") is a prefix meaning "more comprehensive" or "transcending". In modern nomenclature, ''meta''- can also serve as a prefix meaning self-referential, as a field of study or ende ...

, Arauca, Casanare and Vichada. The Ariari region, whose most important

is Granada, began with the population displacement from the Cundiboyacense highlands and Sumapaz in the middle of the last

century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial ...

, and was accentuated between 1950 and 1970 with migrations towards the upper Ariari, made up of the municipalities from

Cubarral Cubarral is a town and municipality in the Meta Department, Colombia. The municipality of Guamal borders Cubarral to the north, to the west is bordered by the department of Cundinamarca, to the east by the municipality of San Martín and to the ...

, Granada, El Castillo, Medellín del Ariari,

Fuente de Oro Fuente de Oro ( en, Fountain of Gold) is a town and municipality in the Meta Department Meta () is a department of Colombia. It is close to the geographic center of the country, to the east of the Andean mountains. A large portion of the de ...

and Lejanías. On June 23, 1956, Boquemonte changed its name to Nueva Granada; Likewise, on November 19 of the same year, by decree 299, he was elected to the category of municipality.

Tourism

Places

Bridge El Alcaraván

The El Alcaraván bridge connects Granada with the municipalities of

San Juan de Arama San Juan de Arama is a town and municipality in the Meta Department Meta () is a department of Colombia. It is close to the geographic center of the country, to the east of the Andean mountains. A large portion of the department, which is a ...

, Vista Hermosa,

Mesetas Mesetas is a town and municipality in the Meta Department Meta () is a department of Colombia. It is close to the geographic center of the country, to the east of the Andean mountains. A large portion of the department, which is also crossed ...

and Uribe.

Parties and celebrations

Summer Festival

The summer festival is one of the best known and most important in the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

, this is due to the different cultural and sporting events. Every year this

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival co ...

is celebrated in the month of January, enjoying the shores of the beautiful beaches of the

Ariari River The Ariari River is a river of Colombia, located entirely within the Meta Department. Part of the Orinoco River basin, it merges with the Guayabero River to forms the Guaviare River The Guaviare is a tributary of the Orinoco in Colombia. It ...

, activities are known such as: campercross, extreme sports,

motocross Motocross is a form of off-road motorcycle racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. The sport evolved from motorcycle trials competitions held in the United Kingdom. History Motocross first evolved in Britain from motorcycle trials competi ...

, aerobics, soccer, beach volleyball, reign,

mountain bike A mountain bike (MTB) or mountain bicycle is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling. Mountain bikes share some similarities with other bicycles, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain, which ...

etc. Also what makes this festival unforgettable are the different artists who attend this event to make everyone happy, finally the traditional event, the regatta through the Ariari river, where hundreds of people gather to embark on their journey in the waters of the river.

Economy

The economic activities of the municipality are: -

Agricultural production Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...

, with crops of irrigated and rainfed rice, corn, banana, African palm, cocoa, cassava, sugar cane, papaya, citrus and passion fruit. Secondly, the traditional extensive and semi-extensive grazing livestock. Now tourism, fish farming for consumption and

ornamental fish Lists of aquarium life include lists of fish, amphibians, invertebrates and plants in freshwater, brackish and marine aquariums. In fishkeeping, suitable species of aquarium fish, plants and other organisms vary with the size, water chemistry a ...

and, last but not least, open-air exploitation.So it is a town known for its livestock, and has one of the best fairs and

s, where you can see exhibitions from fine paso horses to

coleus ''Coleus'' is a genus of annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, sometimes succulent, sometimes with a fleshy or tuberous rootstock, found in the Old World tropics and subtropics. The relationship among the genera ''Coleus'', '' Solenostemon'' and ...

References

{{Reflist Municipalities of Meta Department