Santa Catarina is a city in Santa Catarina Municipality in the state of

Nuevo León Nuevo León () is a state in the northeast region of Mexico. The state was named after the New Kingdom of León, an administrative territory from the Viceroyalty of New Spain, itself was named after the historic Spanish Kingdom of León. Wit ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

that is part of the

Monterrey Metropolitan area The Monterrey metropolitan area refers to the surrounding urban agglomeration of Monterrey, Nuevo León. Officially called ''Area Metropolitana de la Ciudad de Monterrey'' or AMM, the metropolitan area is the 2nd-largest in Mexico. Overview Th ...

History

The name of this city comes from the Catholic

Saint Catherine of Alexandria Catherine of Alexandria (also spelled Katherine); grc-gre, ἡ Ἁγία Αἰκατερίνη ἡ Μεγαλομάρτυς ; ar, سانت كاترين; la, Catharina Alexandrina). is, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, wh ...

. The city of Santa Catarina was not "founded" in a traditional manner; at the beginning, it was only a resting point for travelers between

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is ancho ...

and Saltillo. The first recorded name was "Estancia de Santa Catarina" (Shelter of Santa Catarina). During the French Invasion of Mexico in the second half of the 19th century, the president

Benito Juárez Benito Pablo Juárez García (; 21 March 1806 – 18 July 1872) was a Mexican liberal politician and lawyer who served as the 26th president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in office in 1872. As a Zapotec, he was the first indigenous pre ...

spent some days in Santa Catarina while traveling to Monterrey, and it was during this time that he elevated its status to

Village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

. The category of

was maintained until 1979 when the state government elevated its status to

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

Geography

Santa Catarina is located about 15 kilometers southwest of central Monterrey. As of the Mexican census of 2005, its population was 259,202 in the city and 259,896 in the municipality. The city and municipality both rank sixth in population in the state. The municipality has an area of 984.5 km² (380.12 sq mi) and includes numerous very small localities outside of the city itself.

Natural areas

Most of the

National Park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

Cumbres of Monterrey, including the

canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cu ...

of La Huasteca is located within Santa Catarina. Also a certain portion of Cerro de las Mitras is located in Santa Catarina.

Climate

References

Link to tables of population data from Census of 2005
INEGI: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática
Nuevo León
Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México ;Specific

External links

Municipio de Santa Catarina
Official website
Defensors of the huasteca website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Catarina, Nuevo Leon Populated places in Nuevo León Monterrey metropolitan area Populated places established in 1596