Santa Fe de Antioquia is 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' ...

in the

Antioquia Department Antioquia () is one of the 32 departments of Colombia, located in the central northwestern part of Colombia with a narrow section that borders the Caribbean Sea. Most of its territory is mountainous with some valleys, much of which is part o ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. The city is located approximately north of

Medellín Medellín ( ; or ), officially the Special District of Science, Technology and Innovation of Medellín (), is the List of cities in Colombia, second-largest city in Colombia after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia Departme ...

, the department capital. The population was 23,216 at the 2018 census.

History

Founded in 1541 by Jorge Robledo as ''Villa de Santafé'' on the western bank of the Cauca River, in 1545 it received the coat of arms and the title of ''City of Antioquia'' from King

Philip II of Spain Philip II (21 May 152713 September 1598), sometimes known in Spain as Philip the Prudent (), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and List of Sicilian monarchs, Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He ...

. It was elevated to the status of parish in 1547 by the bishop of Popayán. It changed its name in 1584 when it became the capital of Antioquia. It was a mining town from its beginnings and the gold mining operation has been the base of its economy. Its cathedral was constructed in 1799 and elevated to the Diocese of Antioquia in 1804 by Pope Pius VII. In 1813 Antioquia was declared a sovereign and independent state with Santa Fe as its capital, a status it maintained until 1826, when

was chosen as the new departmental seat. Due to the state of conservation of its colonial architecture, it was declared a national monument in 1960.

Geography

The municipal area is , with a mountainous territory within the Central Cordillera of the Andes and watered by both the Cauca and the Tonusco Rivers.

Climate

The climate of Santa Fe de Antioquia is

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

and humid, typical of Colombia's Cauca River valley, due to its low altitude and its geographical location near the equator. The average temperature is throughout the year. This pleasant weather has allowed tourism to develop in the city, which has been filled with hostels, hotels and water parks frequented by people from Medellín and the near metropolitan area.

Economy

The economy of Santa Fe de Antioquia is based on agriculture: the main products are

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

and

beans A bean is the seed of some plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying (a ''pulse''), but fresh beans are also sold. Dried beans are tradition ...

Tourism

Tourism has been, and continues to be one of the more important economic enterprises for the municipality. The opening of the Tunnel of the West (which reduces the time and the distance between the locality and Medellín) in 2006 has allowed hundreds of tourists to arrive each weekend, stimulating the vocation of the vicinity as a summer vacation site. In 2017 a modernization project began on its main Plaza which was completed in 2018. The project closed traffic to cars and added gardens with the help of Botanical Garden of Medellín. Santa Fe was named a '' Pueblo Patrimonio'' (heritage town) of Colombia in 2010. It was the only municipality in Antioquia selected to be part of the ''Red Turística de Pueblos Patrimonio'' original cohort.

Sites of Interest

All of the town is a historical site; the architecture that has survived through the years gives Santa Fe de Antioquia the aspect of a city "suspended" in the colonial era, which is the reason the city was declared National monument. * Puente de Occidente (Bridge of the West, a National Monument); suspension bridge built in 1887, same year as the Eiffel Tower, over the Cauca River. *Metropolitan Cathedral *Archiepiscopal Palace *Plaza Mayor Juan de Corral *Museum of Religious Art *The House of the Two Palms *La Playita (Famous Ranch To The South of the Plaza) *Tonusco Campestre

References

External links

City of Santa Fe de Antioquia official government website
{{Authority control Municipalities of Antioquia Department Populated places established in 1541 1541 establishments in the Spanish Empire