The Tovar Municipality is one of the 18

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

(

municipio ' (, ) and ' () are country subdivisions in Italy and several Hispanophone and Lusophone nations, respectively. They are often translated as "municipality". In the English language, a municipality often is defined as relating to a single city or t ...

s) that makes up the

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

n state of

Aragua Aragua State ( es, Estado Aragua, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela. It is located in the north-central region of Venezuela. It has plains and jungle (terrain), jungles and Caribbean beaches. The most popular are Cata a ...

and, according to the 2011 census by the National Institute of Statistics of Venezuela, the municipality has a population of 14,161. The town of

Colonia Tovar Colonia Tovar ( en, Tovar Colony) is a town of Venezuela, capital of the municipality Tovar in Aragua state. It is located about west of Caracas. It was founded on April 8, 1843, by a group of 390 immigrants from the then independent state of th ...

is the

shire town A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

of the Tovar Municipality.
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History

The village of ''La Colonia Tovar'' (''The Tovar Colony'') is located about 60 km from

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 town was named after

Martín Tovar y Ponte Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

who donated the land over 100 years ago. The town is mainly known for its Germanic characteristics, culture, and a dessert called "golfiado", which is very similar to a

Cinnamon roll A cinnamon roll (also known as cinnamon bun, cinnamon swirl, cinnamon Danish and cinnamon snail) is a sweet roll commonly served in Northern Europe (mainly in Nordic countries, but also in Austria and Germany) and North America. In Sweden it is ...

. Founded in 1843 by German settlers, the city remained isolated from the rest of the country for decades, a factor that permitted the inhabitants to keep their culture and traditions. The majority of its residents are descendants of Germans and have a Northern European appearance. The Alemannic dialect of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

, known as '' Alemán Coloniero'' ("Colonial German"), is nearly extinct. Today, 6,000 people live in the main village, up from 1,300 in 1963. Due to the cool climate and pleasant surrounding countryside, it is a popular week-end destination for many visitors from

. Many houses are weekend retreats and second homes. There is a wide range of hotels, restaurants and tourist facilities, many of which are only open on the weekend. The town and surrounding mountainous countryside have a superficial resemblance to Southern Germany. The visitor will occasionally see Germanic oddities such as waitresses in traditional

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

n dress hawking " torta selva negra" and the odd "D" plate on some cars, but will be unlikely to find anyone who understands German fluently.

Geography

Colonia Tovar, at about 2,000 meters above sea level, has an annual average temperature of 16 degrees

Celsius The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius scale (originally known as the centigrade scale outside Sweden), one of two temperature scales used in the International System of Units (SI), the other being the Kelvin scale. The ...

(61 degrees

Fahrenheit The Fahrenheit scale () is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). It uses the degree Fahrenheit (symbol: °F) as the unit. Several accounts of how he originally defined his ...

), and at night it can drop to around 5 °C.

Economy

The cost of living is higher here than elsewhere in Venezuela. The town depends mostly on tourism and

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fu ...

agriculture. The surrounding cloud forests are protected by the Pico Codazzi Natural Monument, though some signs of deforestation are visible due to the high tourist demand from Caracas, and the extraction of

tree fern The tree ferns are arborescent (tree-like) ferns that grow with a trunk elevating the fronds above ground level, making them trees. Many extant tree ferns are members of the order Cyatheales, to which belong the families Cyatheaceae (scaly tree ...

, sold dry for growing orchids. The town is situated on a steep hillside, making the street layout difficult and poorly suited to the heavy weekend traffic. During the week the town can be virtually deserted.

Demographics

The Tovar Municipality, according to a 2007 population estimate by the National Institute of Statistics of Venezuela, has a population of 17,429 (up from 14,798 in 2000). This amounts to 1% of the state's population. The municipality's population density is .

Government

The mayor of the Tovar Municipality is Esteban Bocaranda, elected on October 31, 2004, with 33% of the vote. He replaced Alfredo Durr shortly after the elections. The municipality is divided into one

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

; Capital Tovar.

References

External links

tovar-aragua.gob.ve

tucoloniatovar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tovar Municipality Municipalities of Aragua