Neiva () is the capital of the Department of Huila. It is located in the

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

of the

Magdalena River The Magdalena River ( es, Río Magdalena, ; less commonly ) is the main river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of ...

in south central

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

with a population of about 357,392 inhabitants. It is one of the most important cities in southern Colombia, mainly because of its strategic geographical location.

History

Neiva was first founded in 1539 by Juan de Cabrera in an area now belonging to the municipality of Campoalegre. In 1550, Juan de Alonso y Arias relocated the city to the place that is now the municipality of Villavieja. At this location, the city was destroyed by indigenous tribes in 1560. The city was founded, at its current location, for the third and final time in 1612 by Diego de Ospina y Medinilla. Neiva became important during the colonial times because of its strategic location. It was located in the trade route that communicated the

Viceroyalty of Peru The Viceroyalty of Peru ( es, Virreinato del Perú, links=no) was a Spanish imperial provincial administrative district, created in 1542, that originally contained modern-day Peru and most of the Spanish Empire in South America, governed from ...

with

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

and

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

. The city was declared as the capital of the Province of Neiva, made up of the Neiva,

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the , it has a population of 654,324 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 787,294 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from th ...

Timaná Timaná is a town and municipality in the Huila Department, Colombia. The municipality is located in the south of Huila at an altitude of and southwest of the capital Neiva. History The region of Timaná before the conquest in Colombia was in ...

, Purificación

cabildos Cabildo can refer to: * Cabildo (council), a former Spanish municipal administrative unit governed by a council * Cabildo abierto, or open cabildo, a Latin American political action for convening citizens to make important decisions * Cabildo (Cuba ...

. In 1905 the city became the capital of the newly created Huila Department, which had been severed from the Tolima Department by the national government. In 1967, the city was hit severely by an

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

of magnitude 7.2. The earthquake destroyed several buildings including the ''Palacio de las 57 ventanas'', the Governor's building. In 2003 the city was the scene of a large bombing that was targeted at the Colombian President. 13 people were killed.

Geography and climate

The city has the dry-summer

tropical savannah climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry winter) and ''As'' (for a dry summer). The driest month has less than of p ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

: As), relatively rare and scattered across the world. Due to its location near the

equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...

and its low altitude, the city has a hot annual average climate with daytime temperatures ranging from 88 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. It is about 300 kilometers / 186.4 miles (about a five-hour drive) from the Colombian capital,

. The city of

Palembang Palembang () is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River on the eastern lowland of southern Sumatra. It had a population of 1,668,848 at the 2020 Census. Palembang ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

is the antipode of Neiva.

Ethnography

According to DANE, the ethnography composition of the city is: * Whites or Europeans descendants and mestizos: 98.9%% * Indigenous: 0,3% * Black, mulatto or afro-descendant: 0,8%

Economy

Neiva is a distribution center for many consumer goods to the national economy such as rice, coffee, beef, milk, leather by-products and other agricultural products. Its annual agricultural fair held in May showcases horses, cattle and pork from local municipalities and other surrounding towns.

Tourist attractions

Throughout the city a tourist might enjoy the scattered city monuments, especially around the edges of the Magdalena River, where the local government has been maintaining the recently built sanctuary meant to safeguard the Magdalena from any pollutants and human produced contamination. Around this sanctuary there are parks and gardens usually crowded by locals and tourists who came to the growing city. The city can be reached by road travel, or by all major national airlines, coming to the

Benito Salas Airport Benito Salas Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Benito Salas, ) is an airport that serves the city of Neiva, the capital of the Huila Department in Colombia. It was named after Benito Salas Vargas, a military and social leader during Colombia's (then know ...

Education

Neiva is home to several

universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

which serve primarily Southern Colombia. Among the most important are the Universidad Surcolombiana, the ''Corporación Universitaria del Huila'', and the ''Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia''.

Transport

Air Transportation

The

, named after

Benito Salas Vargas Benito Salas Vargas (1770 – 18 September 1816) was a military and social leader during Colombia's (then known as New Granada) independence war (1810–1819). He fought against Pablo Morillo during the Spanish reconquest of New Granada. In 1 ...

, is located inside the city and serves domestic destinations.

Culture

The city is known as the

Bambuco Bambuco is a traditional music genre from Colombia. Its metric structure is similar to the European waltz or polska (not to be confused with the polka). Typically a bambuco piece is accompanied by a stylized group dance in either a or meter. ...

capital.

José Eustasio Rivera José Eustasio Rivera Salas (February 19, 1888 – December 1, 1928) was a Colombian lawyer and author primarily known for his national epic ''The Vortex''. Early life José Eustasio Rivera was born on February 19, 1888 in Aguas Calientes, a ha ...

, born in Rivera, is the most famous writer of a "pléyade" of creators that lived in Neiva (Regulo Suárez, Eustaquio Álvarez, Felio Andrade, Antonio Iriarte, Yezid Morales, Humberto Calderón, Jorge Guebelly, Luis Alberto Campos, Winston Morales, Jader Rivera, David Alberto Campos)

Festivals and events

This city is known for the ''

Festival Folclórico y Reinado Nacional del Bambuco The Bambuco Pageant and Folkloric Festival is the largest and most important celebration in Huila Department and one of the most important celebrations in southern Colombia. It is celebrated annually in the city of Neiva during the Feast of Saint ...

'' festivities held between the last two weeks of June and early July. During this time, there are daily parades through the downtown area and showings of the '' Sanjuanero'', a folk dance, where the participants dress in a typical costumes and compete for being the best performers of the Sanjuanero choreography.

Sports

Soccer is currently the most popular sport in the city. The city is the base for the

Atlético Huila Atlético Huila is a professional Colombian football team based in Neiva, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera B. The club was founded on November 29, 1990, making it one of the youngest professional football clubs in Colombia. The club' ...

club which competes in the top division of the Colombian professional football (soccer) league, the

Categoría Primera A The Categoría Primera A (), commonly referred to as Liga BetPlay Dimayor (between 2015 and 2019 ''Liga Águila'') due to sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is a Colombian professional league for association football clubs. It is the ...

. The games are played at the Guillermo Plazas Alcid Stadium. Basketball had historically a high popularity, although it has decreased in recent years. The cities Basketball games are played at the Coliseo Álvaro Sánchez Silva court. The city has hosted important national and international sport events. For example: * XI National Games of Colombia 1980 *Juvenile

Finswimming Finswimming is an underwater sport consisting of four techniques involving swimming with the use of fins either on the water's surface using a snorkel with either monofins or bifins or underwater with monofin either by holding one's breath or ...

World Championship 2008 * South American Basketball Championship 2010 * FIBA Americas Championship for Women 2011 The city of Neiva was one of the host cities for the 2016 FIFA Futsal World Cup.

Sister cities

Kungsbacka Kungsbacka () (old da, Kongsbakke) is a locality and the seat of Kungsbacka Municipality in Halland County, Sweden, with 19,057 inhabitants in 2010. It is one of the most affluent parts of Sweden, in part due to its simultaneous proximity to the ...

, Sweden * Cadiz, Spain *

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

, Queensland, Australia *

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, United States *

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, Italy *

, Colombia *

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

, France *

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...

, Sweden *

Cartagena de Indias Cartagena ( , also ), known since the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias (), is a city and one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region, bordering the Caribbean sea. Cartagena's past role as a link ...

, Colombia *

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia * Leesburg, Florida, United States *

, South Sumatra, Indonesia

Notable people

Misael Pastrana Borrero Misael Eduardo Pastrana Borrero (14 November 1923 – 21 August 1997) was a Colombian politician and lawyer who served as the 23rd President of Colombia from 1970 to 1974. He was also the father of the 30th President Andrés Pastrana Arango. ...

, president of Colombia * Olga Duque de Ospina, senator and governor of Huila * Rodrigo Lara, lawyer and politician * Natalia Valenzuela, model, presenter and beauty pageant titleholder * Claudia Bahamón, model and presenter

Gallery

File:Neiva panoramica.jpg, Neiva panoramica File:Catedral de Neiva.jpg, Catedral de Neiva File:Gobernacion.jpg, Government office in Neiva File:Iglesia San Jorge, Neiva - panoramio.jpg, Church of St. George in Neiva File:Los Potros.JPG, Los Potros, a tribute to

by Rodrigo Arenas Betancur, in Neiva File:Office building in Neiva.jpg, Office building in Neiva File:On the main street.jpg, On the main street

References

External links

Neiva official website

Opanoticias Daily Newspaper from Neiva

La Nación Daily Newspaper from Neiva

Diario del Huila Daily Newspaper
{{Authority control Populated places on the Magdalena River Municipalities of Huila Department Capitals of Colombian departments