Pereira (Colombia)

Pereira
Coordinates: 4 ° 49 ′  N , 75 ° 43 ′  W Pereira​ Pereira on the map of Colombia
Location of the municipality of Pereira on the Risaralda map
Basic data
Country	Colombia
Department	Risaralda
City foundation	August 9, 1540 or  August 30, 1863 (official)
Residents	478,892  (2019)
- in the metropolitan area	717.914
City insignia
Detailed data
surface	610 km 2
Population density	785 inhabitants / km 2
height	1411  m
City structure	19 comunas
Waters	Río Otún , Río Consota
Time zone	UTC -5
City Presidency	Carlos Maya (2020-2023)
Website	www.pereira.gov.co
View over Pereira

Pereira (formerly: Villa de Robledo and Antigua Cartago , also Cartago Viejo ) is a Colombian municipality ( municipio ) at the western foot of the Central Cordillera, roughly in the middle of the "Golden Triangle" between the largest Colombian cities Bogotá , Medellín and Cali . Pereira has been the capital of the Risaralda department since 1966 .

geography

location

Pereira is located at the western foot of the Central Cordilleras between the Río Otún and Río Consota . On the other side of the Otún is the smaller sister city Dosquebradas . Because of its location, the city is also known as the “Pearl of Otún”. Another name is also: " la trasnochadora, querendona y morena ".

Neighboring communities

The area of ​​the city is surrounded by the following municipalities (from north clockwise): Marsella , Dosquebradas , Santa Rosa de Cabal , Santa Isabel , Anzoátegui , Ibagué , Salento , Filandia , Ulloa , Cartago , Ansermanuevo , Balboa and La Virginia . Together with La Virginia and Dosquebradas, Pereira forms the metropolitan area Área Metropolitana de Centro Occidente (AMCO).

Community structure

The city of Pereira is divided into 19 districts (comunas): Ferrocarril, Olímpica, San Joaquín, Cuba, Del Café, El oso, Perla del Otún, Consota, El Rocío, El poblado, El jardín, San Nicolás, Centro, Río Otún, Boston, Universidad, Villavicencio, Oriente and Villasantana. Rural localities in the municipality ( corregimientos ) are Altagracia, Arabia, Caimalito, Cerritos, Combia Alta, Combia Baja, La Bella, La Estrella - La Palmilla, La Florida, Morelia, Puerto Caldas and Tribunas.

geology

Pereira is located in an area of ​​increased seismic and volcanic activity. In the vicinity of Pereira are the volcanoes Nevado del Tolima , Nevado del Ruiz and Santa Isabel . On January 25, 1999, a severe earthquake shook the area around Pereira. The epicenter was only 80 km away. The city suffered 61 deaths. A total of 41,500 people were affected, 11,000 of them homeless. Property damage occurred to around 10% of the houses: 760 were totally destroyed, 1693 uninhabitable and 6308 damaged.

climate

Due to its location near the equator and between two Andean chains, there are no pronounced rainy and dry seasons in Pereira, and no large temperature differences during the year. The average temperature is about 22 ° C, the average amount of precipitation is about 2750 mm per year.

Pereira
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.     123   28 16     115   28 16     178   28 16     235   27 16     235   27 16     171   27 16     124   28 16     124   28 16     189   27 16     274   27 16     278   27 16     162   27 16 Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm Source: wetterkontor.de

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Pereira Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 27.8 28.1 28.0 27.2 27.0 26.8 27.5 27.6 27.3 26.7 26.5 27.1 O 27.3 Min. Temperature (° C) 16.1 16.2 16.4 16.4 16.3 16.0 15.9 15.9 15.6 15.7 15.9 16.2 O 16 Precipitation ( mm ) 123 115 178 235 235 171 124 124 189 274 278 162 Σ 2,208 Hours of sunshine ( h / d ) 6.3 6.0 5.3 4.4 4.6 5.0 6.0 5.7 4.9 4.4 5.2 5.8 O 5.3 Humidity ( % ) 72 72 72 76 77 77 74 73 73 77 81 74 O 74.8 Source: wetterkontor.de

Population and population development

In the 1870 census, the Pereira district with 633 inhabitants was the second smallest place in the Municipio Quindío, whose main town Cartago then had 7696 inhabitants. The provincial capital Popayán had 8,485 inhabitants. Due to the large influx of settlers from the northern province of Antioquia who wanted to establish their own existence in Pereira, the city grew faster than average. When the Departamento Caldas was founded in 1905 , Pereira already had 19,000 inhabitants and was the second largest city there, after the capital Manizales with 25,000 inhabitants. The municipality of Pereira today has 478,892 inhabitants, of which 406,340 live in the urban part (cabecera municipal) of the municipality (as of 2019). With 717,914 inhabitants, the metropolitan region is the eighth largest metropolitan area in Colombia.

history

Quimbaya sculpture made of gold

Bust of Robledo in Medellin

→ Main article : History of the city of Pereira

In pre-Columbian times the area was inhabited by Quimbaya Indios, which were especially famous for their goldsmithing. The Spanish settlement began with the founding of the city of Cartago by the conquistador Jorge Robledo in 1540. However, this city was moved to the Cauca Valley in 1691, where it now exists as Cartago .

In 1816, the Colombian freedom fighter José Francisco Pereira Martinez hid with some friends in the ruins of Cartago. After Colombia gained independence in 1826, he acquired this area from the state for the purchase price of 4,234 pesos and 6 reales.

From the 1840s onwards there were major shifts in the population distribution of Colombia. Especially from the poorer province of Antioquia , settlers moved to the south of their province and to the neighboring Cauca (today Valle del Cauca ) in order to become self-employed with their own piece of land. A settlement also arose in the area of ​​the former Cartago. The inhabitants of the village built a small church in today's Plaza Bolívar and asked the responsible bishop to have it consecrated. This took place on August 30, 1863 by the priest Remigio Antonio Cañarte . This date is now considered the founding date of the city of Pereira, although it was not a political but a church action, and the village did not yet have the name Pereira at that time. Cañarte came from Cartago and had moved with other citizens to "Old Cartago" (Antigua Cartago) six days earlier to settle here. In this way, a mixture of former residents of the city of Cartago and settlers who had moved from the province of Antioquia developed in the village.

Pereira Martinez had recently died, and his son Guillermo Pereira Gamba had inherited his lands . In the course of 1865, he had 98 parcels identified and sold to settlers. At this time, the place name Pereira also prevailed in honor of the father. This became official at the latest with the elevation of the village to a separate district within the province, which happened on January 20, 1870. A second land distribution was made on the initiative of the state. It comprised a much larger number of parcels and lasted from 1871 to 1884. After these two land distributions, the number of inhabitants had multiplied and the city of Pereira had established the structure that is still visible today.

After the Thousand Day War , Colombia was reorganized and in 1905 the new department of Caldas was founded from parts of Antioquia and Cauca, and Manizales became the capital . The department was divided into three provinces, with Pereira being the capital of the Robledo province. When in 1966 part of Caldas was carved out as the Risaralda Department , Pereira became its capital.

Religions

Pereira Cathedral

Interior of the Pereira Cathedral

The Catholic denomination is predominant in Pereira. During the time of Spanish rule, there was already a church in what was then Cartago, which was dedicated to St. George. With the relocation of the city, there was no longer an independent parish in the area, but churches and chapels where baptisms were held.

The villagers built a small church with a thatched roof in 1862 and wrote a letter to the Bishop of Popayán asking that the church be consecrated by the priest Remigio Antonio Cañarte . It is interesting that the expansion of the church's sphere of influence did not come from the church leadership, but from the villagers themselves. The consecration of the church on August 30, 1863 in the name of Santa Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Pobreza is considered the official founding date of Pereira, too if the settlement did not yet have this name at that time and it was an ecclesiastical and not a political act. However, a church was an important focal point for a new settlement. The common religion was an important link between the settlers from Antioquia and the residents from Cartago.

With the blessing of the church, Pereira was not yet an independent parish. This step was only taken between 1870 and 1874, around the same time that Pereira became a separate district and the villagers decided to replace the small church with a large building.

A church body, which was responsible for the new building, was set up on July 6, 1873 and on May 6, 1874 bought a plot of land on Carrera de Colón (today: Carrera 7, on the west side of plaza Bolívar), where the Spanish Cartago the church stood. Through several acquisitions in 1881 and 1883, the property was considerably enlarged.

The building of the church was a community effort in which the residents had to contribute in the form of work or compensation. The church was consecrated in 1890 in the name of Nuestra Señora de la Pobreza , but was destroyed by the earthquake of January 31, 1906.

The roof of the successor building was given a wooden structure made of 13,503 elements, which could withstand vibrations better. After the severe earthquake on January 25, 1999, repairs were necessary. During this work, graves were found that probably date from before 1691, when the city was settled under the name Cartago.

Until April 11, 1900, the parish of Pereira belonged to the diocese Popayán , then to the newly founded diocese of Manizales . The Pereira diocese has existed since December 17, 1952 .

politics

mayor

The mayor of Pereira was also elected in the Colombian local elections on October 30, 2011. The final result was not announced until four weeks after the election, as the electoral authority had ordered a recount. Apparently there had been attempts to manipulate the count. Enrique Vasquez Zuleta was declared the winner by the U party .

City symbols

The coat of arms unites symbols of pre-Columbian, colonial and modern history of Pereira. The golden frog was a sacred animal of the Quimbaya Indians and stood for fertility and mobility. The half sun and the two crowns were taken from the coat of arms of old Cartago. The three interlocking hands stand for unity, solidarity and community in the modern city. The coffee and laurel branches represent the agricultural wealth and the victory of the city over adversity.

The flag shows a yellow triangle on a scarlet background, symbolizing the blood of the sons of Pereira and the wealth of the soil. In the middle is a red Phrygian cap on a stick , which represents freedom.

Culture and sights

Parks

The largest public park in the city is Parque Olaya Herrera , which was built in the 1930s near what was then the train station. Other well-known parks are Parque Bolívar , Parque el Lago Uribe Uribe with its round pond and Parque de la Libertad .

The Technological University of Pereira maintains a botanical garden ( Jardín Botánico Universidad Tecnológica De Pereira , JBUTP). It was founded in 1983 and can be visited by appointment. It extends over an area of ​​12.7 hectares and has 1500 m of paths. The botanical garden serves the university for research and teaching, but also the population for education and recreation.

The Matecaña Zoo, opened in 1959, is one of the largest and most traditional zoos in Colombia with an area of ​​7.5 hectares. It is home to over 150 animal species, 80% of which are native. After the death of drug lord Pablo Escobar , the Colombian state handed over some African animals from its private zoo to the Pereiras Zoo. A special feature of the zoo are ligers , a cross between a lion and a tiger . Seven animals were born here, now only one lives in this zoo.

Attractions

Plaza Bolívar. In the foreground the sculpture Bolívar Desnudo in the background the Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Pobreza .

The economic and cultural center of the city is the Ciudad Victoria around the Plaza Bolívar, which also forms the historical center of the city. In this square or in the immediate vicinity there are shopping centers, the cathedral, the cultural center, the museum of modern art, the city library and the Egoya city park.

In the city there are some sculptures by the Colombian artist Rodrigo Arenas Betancur . The most striking of these is the Bolívar Desnudo monument in the city center on the Plaza de Bolívar, which shows the state founder Simón Bolívar naked on a horse. Also well known and often depicted is the sculpture El Cristo Sin Cruz (the Christ without the cross) at the Iglesia Nuestra Señora de Fátima . He also designed El Prometeo Encadenado (The Fettered Prometheus) and a monument for the city's founders (Monumento a los Fundadores).

Sports

The football club Deportivo Pereira currently plays in the second Colombian League Primera B . From mid-2014 to early 2015, the former Itagüí- based club Águilas Doradas played their home games in Pereira. The Estadio Hernán Ramírez Villegas stadium was the venue for the Copa America 2001 South American soccer championship and the 2011 U-20 World Cup . The Seguros Bolívar Open Pereira tennis tournament , part of the ATP Challenger Tour, has been held in Pereira every year since 2009 . There is also the Piscinas Oliípicas swimming stadium in Pereira, which can seat 3,000 people, and the Alfonso Hurtado Velodrome for 6,400 people.

Public facilities

The urban cultural center Centro Cultural Lucy Tejada was opened in 2005 and is named after the Colombian painter Lucy Tejada Sáenz , who comes from Pereira. Cultural events of all kinds take place here. The headquarters of the Academy of History and the city library are also located in the building.

Regular events

Since 2007, a half marathon (Media Maratón del Eje Cafetero) has been held annually in Pereira , the course of which leads over the viaduct to the neighboring Dosquebradas. In addition to the women's and men's rankings in different age groups, there is also a competition for hand bikes .

traffic

The Aeropuerto Internacional Matecaña Airport

Air traffic

Matecaña International Airport is about 5 km west of the city center. It connects Pereira with various cities in Colombia. There are international flights to New York City ( Avianca ) and Panama City ( Copa Airlines ).

Road traffic

Pereira is connected to the cities of Manizales , Armenia and Cali by well-developed, partly four-lane highways . Highways operated by the Autopistas del Cafe company are toll roads.

With the sister city Dosquebradas on the other side of the Río Otun, Pereira is connected by the Viaducto César Gaviria Trujillo , which was opened to traffic on November 15, 1997. The namesake César Gaviria Trujillo was President of Colombia from 1990-1994 and comes from Pereira. Long-distance traffic to Manizales also flows over this bridge.

Bus transport

The bus terminal in the south of the city is available for long-distance traffic . Local public transport is served by several bus routes. The Megabús has been in use since August 2006 , with articulated buses on three lines on separate lanes and closed boarding points along the main roads for fast connections within Pereira and to Dosquebradas.

Rail transport

In December 1911, the emerging province of Caldas , to which Pereira belonged at the time, decided to build a railway line from the provincial capital Manizales to the Río Cauca to facilitate the transport of the coffee harvests. Construction of the Ferrocarril de Caldas narrow-gauge line began in Puerto Caldas in August 1915 , and Pereira was reached in 1920. As the terminus of the Caldas railway and thus a loading station for coffee, the city experienced a strong boom. The route was continued in 1927 to the provincial capital Manizales. Around the same time, a branch line to Armenia was built, which went into operation in 1927 in part and in 1929 completely.

In 1948 the railroad was bought by the federal government. First the operation went to the Ferrocarril del Pacífico , from 1951 to the nationally established operating company Consejo Nacional de Ferrocarriles (CNF). A few years later the railway lines were closed. The library Biblioteca Pública Municipal Ramón Correa is now located in the former station building .

The electric tram in Pereira opened on February 26, 1927. The operation was probably stopped in 1956.

economy

Expofuturo convention center

As the largest city in the wider area, Pereira is an important hub for retail and wholesale. Together with the regions of the neighboring cities of Armenia and Manizales , the area around Pereira forms the center of coffee cultivation in Colombia ( Eje Cafetero ).

The primary economic sector contributes 4.8% to economic output, the secondary 26.7% and the tertiary 68.5% (as of 2009). The gross national product in 2010 was the equivalent of 5555 US dollars. The unemployment rate has been between 13% and 20% in recent years and was 18.8% in 2010.

The economic output of the city is divided into the sectors as follows (as of 2010):

Branch	Share of the number of companies	Share of sales
Agriculture	2.5%	4.4%
Mining	0.0%	0.1%
Electricity, gas and water	0.1%	2.7%
Industry	8.4%	17.3%
construction industry	2.1%	6.2%
Trade. Restaurants and hotels	59.7%	19.3%
Transport and communications	5.5%	11.7%
Financial sector	12.9%	15.3%
Social and personal services	8.7%	26.0%

The Chamber of Commerce maintains the Expofuturo center near the airport for trade fairs, congresses and exhibitions .

education

Pereira owns several universities, including the Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, founded in 1958 . Other universities are the Universidad Católica de Pereira , the Universidad Libre , the Fundación Universitaria del Área Andina , the Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia , the Universidad Santo Tomás , the Universidad Antonio Nariño and the Universidad Autónoma de las Américas .

sons and daughters of the town

• Lucy Tejada (1920–2011), painter
• César Gaviria Trujillo (* 1947), President of Colombia 1990–1994
• Rodrigo Rivera (* 1963), politician, minister and ambassador
• Santiago Giraldo (* 1987), tennis player
• Andrés Arroyave (1990-2018), football player
• Cucho Hernández (* 1999), football player

and display information about the image

Panoramic picture of the city center

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Pereira: la trasnochadora, querendona y morena, destino turístico en Risaralda. Viaja Por Colombia, accessed April 4, 2012 (Spanish). 
2. ↑ Magnitude 6.2 Colombia. (No longer available online.) US Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center, April 5, 2004, archived from the original on May 12, 2008 ; accessed on March 20, 2012 (English). 
3. ↑ El terremoto de enero de 1999 in Colombia. Impacto socioeconómico del desastre en la zona del Eje Cafetero. (PDF; 1.2 MB) (No longer available online.) CEPAL , April 27, 1999, pp. 11, 35, 36 , formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 13, 2012 (Spanish).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
4. ^ Estadística de Colombia. Parte Primera 1876. (PDF 13 MB) (No longer available online.) Oficina de estadistica Nacional, February 1876, pp. 10, 53 , formerly in the original ; Retrieved February 14, 2012 (Spanish).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
5. ^ Gabriel Poveda: El Antiguo Ferrocaril de Caldas. (PDF; 258 kB) June 26, 2003, p. 2 , accessed on March 20, 2012 (Spanish). 
6. ↑ ESTIMACIONES DE POBLACIÓN 1985 - 2005 Y PROYECCIONES DE POBLACIÓN 2005 - 2020 TOTAL DEPARTAMENTAL POR ÁREA. (Excel; 1.72 MB) DANE, May 11, 2011, accessed on April 11, 2019 (Spanish, extrapolation of the population of Colombia). 
7. ↑ Mildreth Osorio Posso, Marcelo Andres Torres Marín Cartago. Historia. June 9, 2010, Retrieved March 20, 2012 (Spanish). 
8. ^ ^{A b c} Sebastián Martínez Botero: Conformatión Política Y Espacial de Pereira: 1857-1877. (PDF; 2.9 MB) (No longer available online.) October 2007, p. 143 , formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 11, 2012 (Spanish).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
9. ↑ Sebastián Martínez Botero: Conformatión Política Y Espacial de Pereira: 1857-1877. (PDF) (No longer available online.) October 2007, p. 103 , formerly in the original ; accessed on March 11, 2012 (Spanish): "Gracias a ella el 20 de enero de 1870 Pereira se convirtió en Distrito y pudo constituir un cabildo." 
10. ↑ Sebastián Martínez Botero: Conformatión Política Y Espacial de Pereira: 1857-1877. (PDF) (No longer available online.) October 2007, p. 67 , formerly in the original ; Retrieved on March 21, 2012 (Spanish): “No sefindró el documento oficial que lo acredite, pero la confirmación de erección parroquial se tuvo que dar entre 1870 a 1874 que fue el momento en que se creó el Distrito y en que se donó el terreno para la construcción del templo mayor. " 
11. ↑ Alvaro Acevedo Tarazona: Los enigmas de la catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Pobreza de Pereira. (No longer available online.) In: Revista de Ciencias Humanas No.27. Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, 2001, archived from the original on September 5, 2011 ; Retrieved March 19, 2012 (Spanish). 
12. ^ Catedral Nuestra Señora de la Pobreza. (No longer available online.) Guía Turística de Risaralda, archived from the original on February 8, 2012 ; Retrieved March 21, 2012 (Spanish). 
13. ^ Catedral Nuestra Señora de la Pobreza de Pereira. (No longer available online.) Triángulo del Café, archived from the original on April 22, 2012 ; Retrieved March 21, 2012 (Spanish). 
14. ^ Toni Peters: Ballot recount ordered for Pereira. Colombia Reports, November 3, 2011, accessed April 4, 2012 . 
15. ^ Ratificado Enrique Vásquez Zuleta como alcalde de la ciudad de Pereira. (No longer available online.) RCN La Radio Pereira, November 26, 2011, formerly in the original ; Retrieved April 4, 2012 (Spanish).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
16. ↑ Escudo. (No longer available online.) Instituto Municipal de Cultura y Fomento al Turismo, archived from the original on March 5, 2016 ; Retrieved April 4, 2012 (Spanish). 
17. ↑ Bandera. (No longer available online.) Instituto Municipal de Cultura y Fomento al Turismo, archived from the original on March 5, 2016 ; Retrieved April 4, 2012 (Spanish). 
18. ^ Jardín Botánico. Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, accessed March 24, 2012 (Spanish). 
19. ^ Zoológico Matecaña - Pereira, destino turístico en Risaralda. Viaja Por Colombia, accessed March 21, 2012 (Spanish). 
20. ↑ Historia. (No longer available online.) Zoológico de Pereira, 2009, archived from the original on October 6, 2012 ; Retrieved March 21, 2012 (Spanish). 
21. ↑ Risaralda. Colombia. Tourist guide. (PDF; 702 kB) (No longer available online.) Ministro de Comercio, Industria y Turismo, 2011, p. 57 , formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 24, 2012 (Spanish).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
22. ^ Media Maratón del Eje Cafetero. (No longer available online.) 2011, archived from the original on March 20, 2012 ; Retrieved March 29, 2012 (Spanish). 
23. ↑ Red de Rutas aeromate.gov.co. Accessed November 7, 2018 (Spanish)
24. ^ Autopistas del Cafe. Autopistas del Cafe, accessed March 11, 2012 (Spanish). 
25. ^ Gilberto Cardona López: Recuperacio del tendido ferreo. (PDF 7 MB) August 3, 2006, pp. 8-9 , accessed on January 13, 2012 (Spanish, contemporary pictures of the train station): "20 de Julio de 1921: 21 cañonazos recibieron el tren en Pereira" 
26. ↑ Gabriel Povada: El Antiguo Ferrocarril de Caldas. (PDF; 258 kB) June 26, 2003, accessed on January 16, 2012 (Spanish). 
27. ↑ Sitios de Interés - RISARALDA. Ministerio de Cultura, accessed March 19, 2012 (Spanish). 
28. ↑ Allen Morrison: Electric Transport Inaugurations in Latin America. In: Electric Transport in Latin America. January 6, 2012, accessed on March 11, 2012 (English): “1927/2/26. COLOMBIA: Pereira. " 
29. ^ Allen Morrison: Electric Transport Closures in Latin America. In: Electric Transport in Latin America. April 14, 2011, accessed on March 11, 2012 (English): “1956? COLOMBIA: Pereira. El tw. " 
30. ↑ Entorno Económico. (No longer available online.) Invest in Pereira, July 26, 2011, archived from the original on January 18, 2012 ; Retrieved March 12, 2012 (Spanish). 
31. ↑ ^{a b} Tendencias de la Economia. Municipio de Pereira 2010. (PDF; 1.3 MB) (No longer available online.) Camara de Comercio Pereira, December 2011, pp. 22, 31 , formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 1, 2012 (Spanish).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
32. ↑ Risaralda. Colombia. Tourist guide. (PDF; 769 kB) (No longer available online.) Ministro de Comercio, Industria y Turismo, 2011, p. 61 , formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 13, 2012 (Spanish).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  

Web links

Commons : Pereira  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Pereira. Alcaldía de Pereira - Risaralda, accessed on April 11, 2019 (Spanish, website of the municipality of Pereira). 
• History of Pereira under the name of Cartago (Spanish)
• Sebastián Martínez Botero: Conformatión Política Y Espacial de Pereira: 1857–1877 (PDF, 472 pages, 2.8 MB, Spanish, 2007)
• 189 pictures from the history of Pereira (Spanish)