San Sebastián de Urabá was the first settlement established by Spaniards in the area of the

Darién Gap The Darién Gap (, , es, Tapón del Darién , ) is a geographic region between the North and South American continents within Central America, consisting of a large watershed, forest, and mountains in Panama's Darién Province and the norther ...

in Colombia. This fortified settlement was founded on 20 January 1510 by

Alonso de Ojeda Alonso de Ojeda (; c. 1466 – c. 1515) was a Spanish explorer, governor and conquistador. He travelled through modern-day Guyana, Venezuela, Trinidad, Tobago, Curaçao, Aruba and Colombia. He navigated with Amerigo Vespucci who is famous ...

on the eastern coast of the

Gulf of Urabá The Gulf of Urabá is a gulf on the northern coast of Colombia. It is part of the Caribbean Sea. It is a long, wide inlet located on the coast of Colombia, close to the connection of the continent to the Isthmus of Panama. The town of Turbo, Co ...

, in what is today

Necoclí Necoclí is a town and municipality in Antioquia Department, Colombia. It is on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Urabá. Its population is predominantly Afro-Colombian, Black descendants of former slaves. It was founded as a Spanish city called S ...

in the territory of the

department of Antioquia ) , anthem = Himno de Antioquia , image_map = Antioquia in Colombia (mainland).svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Antioquia shown in red , image_ma ...

, Colombia. Towards the end of 1509, Alonso de Ojeda arrived in the Darién Gap as governor of the province of New Andalusia which included the Darién Gap. He was commanding an expedition that left

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...

, made up of 300 men, with which he founded the settlement of San Sebastián de Urabá, near the present locality of Necoclí, Antioquia. The native inhabitants were hostile to the Spaniards. They refused to trade food with them and frequently attacked them. Eight months after Ojeda left Hispaniola and founded San Sebastián, the situation in the fort was no longer tenable. Of the 300 men who had initially arrived with Ojeda only 42 survivors remained in the settlement.

References

Former populated places in Colombia Populated places established in 1510 {{Antioquia-geo-stub