Jericó is a town,

municipality 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 ...

and Catholic bishopric in the

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 ...

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

of Antioquia. It is part of the subregion of

Southwestern Antioquia Southwestern Antioquia is a subregion in the Colombian Department of Antioquia. The region is made up of 24 municipalities and is part of the Colombian Coffee Region. Municipalities * Amagá * Andes * Angelópolis * Betania * Betulia * Cai ...

. The distance reference from

Medellín Medellín ( or ), officially the Municipality of Medellín ( es, Municipio de Medellín), is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central re ...

city, the capital of the department, is 104 km (64.6 miles).

History

The town was founded on September 28, 1850, by pioneer Santiago Santamaría. It was established as

on 1851. During a territorial rearrangement on the country on 1908, Jericó became the capital of the homonymous department until 1911. In 2013, Jericó became the third municipality in Antioquia to be named a '' Pueblo Patrimonio'' (heritage town) of Colombia.

Religion

Its Catedral de Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, dedicated to Our Lady of Mercy, is the episcopal

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

see of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Jericó The Diocese of Jericó ( la, Dioecesis Iericoënsis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Western Colombia. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Me ...

(founded 1915, when the first cathedral was built). Due to some damages, the first church had to be replaced by the present cathedral, since 1949.Alcaldía de Jericó
"Nuestro Municipio: Información General"
The town is the birthplace of

Laura of Saint Catherine of Siena Laura Montoya (26 May 1874 – 21 October 1949) – known in religion as Laura of Saint Catherine of Siena – was a Colombian Roman Catholic religious sister and the founder of the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Virgi ...

, canonized as saint by

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

on 2013.

Notable people from Jericó

Héctor Abad Gómez Héctor Abad Gómez (1921 – August 25, 1987) was a Colombian medical doctor, university professor, and human rights leader who founded the Colombian National School of Public Health. He developed practical public health programs for the poor ...

Francisco Luis Lema Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...

Manuel Mejía Vallejo Manuel Mejía Vallejo (23 April 1923 – 23 July 1998) was a Colombian writer and journalist. The specialist Luís Carlos Molina says that Mejía represents the Andean aspect of the contemporary Colombian narrative, characterized by a world ...

* Jesusita Vallejo * José Restrepo Jaramillo

Sites of Interest

* Botanical Garden * Cristo Salvador viewpoint * Bomarzo cultural center * Cerro Las Nubes natural reserve and viewpoint * Casa Museo de Santa Laura * Centro de Historia * Museo Antropologico y de Arte (MAJA) * Museo de Arte Religioso

Sources and external links

GCatholic - cathedral, with Google satellite picture

References

Municipalities of Antioquia Department {{Antioquia-geo-stub