Villa Canales
| Villa Canales | ||
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Coordinates: 14 ° 29 ′ N , 90 ° 32 ′ W Villa Canales on the map of Guatemala
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| Basic data | ||
| Country | Guatemala | |
| Department | Guatemala | |
| City foundation | 1912 as a municipality | |
| Residents | 103,814 (2002) | |
| City insignia | ||
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| Detailed data | ||
| surface | 353 km 2 | |
| Population density | 294 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| height | 1276 m | |
| Waters | Amatitlán lake | |
| City patron | Cristo de la Agonía (Festival: March 25th) Joachim (Saint) (Festival: August 16) |
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Villa Canales is a large city in Guatemala and the administrative seat of the municipality of the same name in the department of Guatemala . The place is 22 kilometers south of Guatemala City at an altitude of 1,276 m on the railway line to Puerto San José, which has been closed since 2007 .
The 353 km² municipality extends in the southern mountainous region of the department of Guatemala, which already slopes down to the coastal plain on the Pacific Ocean and is traversed by several small rivers. The eastern part of Lake Amatitlán belongs to the Municipio Villa Canales, whose north-western areas are already part of the agglomeration of Guatemala City. It has a total of around 110,000 inhabitants, the majority of whom live in suburban and rural settlements and villages, including Boca del Monte, Colmenas, Cumbre de San Nicolás, Chichimecas, El Durazno, El Jocotillo, El Obrajuelo, El Porvenir, Los Dolores, Los Pocitos, San José el Tablón, Santa Elena Barrillas and Santa Rosita.
Adjacent municipalities are Amatitlán in the west, Petapa and Guatemala City in the northwest, Santa Catarina Pinula in the northeast and Fraijanes in the east. In the southeast, Villa Canales borders on the Municipios Barbarena and Pueblo Nuevo Viñas of the Department of Santa Rosa , in the southwest on the Municipios Guanagazapa and San Vicente Pacaya of the Department of Escuintla .
Villa Canales stands at the place where the old village of San Miguel Petapa was flooded and destroyed by the Río Tulujá on October 9, 1762. Some of the survivors of the disaster moved to safer places in the vicinity and founded Villa Nueva and the new village of San Miguel Petapa there. Where Villa Canales is today, only a few Pocomam families remained after 1762 , who poorly rebuilt the place. Until 1912 it was only called Pueblo Viejo ("Old Village") and belonged as a rural community ( Aldea ) to San Miguel Petapa. In 1912 it was elevated to a municipality, and in 1915 it was renamed San Joaquín Villa Canales (a settlement in the east of the place still bears the old name). Since 1921 the official name has only been Villa Canales. The municipality lost its rural community Fraijanes in 1924, which became independent as a municipality. Villa Canales belonged to the Department of Amatitlán until 1935 and then after its dissolution came to the Department of Guatemala.
See also
Web links
- Official websites (Span.)
