Floridablanca (, locally also simply Florida) is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the department of Santander situated at an altitude of in the

Eastern Ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team that currently competes in the Talent League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. History Inaugural playing squad (1992) Honours *Premiers (2): 2002, 2013 *Runners-up (6): 199 ...

of the Colombian

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

. It is part of the metropolitan area of the departmental capital

Bucaramanga Bucaramanga () is the capital and largest city of the department of Santander Department, Santander, Colombia. Bucaramanga has the fifth-largest economy by GDP in Colombia, has the lowest unemployment rate and is the ninth most populous city i ...

. Floridablanca is known for its parks and the Piedra del Sol, a large rock with spirals and circles carved by the

Guane Guane is a municipality and town in the Pinar del Río Province of Cuba. It was founded in 1602. Geography The wards of the municipality include Punta de La Sierra, Portales, Guane 1, Guane 2, Combate la Teneria, Isabel Rubio, Sabalo, and Moll ...

over 1,000 years ago.Floridablanca travel guide
vivatravelguides.com. Accessed 27 November 2022. This city is home of the tallest statue of Jesus Christ in Colombia, "El Santisimo". The statue is high and weighs .Ecoparque Cerro del Santísimo
/ref> The city is situated along the Ruta Nacional 45A, a branch of the

Pan American Highway The Pan-American Highway is a vast network of roads that stretches about 30,000 kilometers (about 19,000 miles) from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in the northernmost part of North America to Ushuaia, Argentina, at the southern tip of South America. I ...

, connecting the capital

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

with

Santa Marta Santa Marta (), officially the Distrito Turístico, Cultural e Histórico de Santa Marta (), is a port List of cities in Colombia, city on the coast of the Caribbean Sea in northern Colombia. It is the capital of Magdalena Department and the fou ...

at the Caribbean coast and

Cúcuta Cúcuta (), officially San José de Cúcuta, is a Colombian municipality, capital of the department of Norte de Santander and nucleus of the Metropolitan Area of Cúcuta. The city is located in the homonymous valley, at the foot of the East ...

as a gateway to

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

.La ciudad de la alegría
- El Tiempo Together with other neighboring municipalities of Bucaramanga, Girón and

Piedecuesta Piedecuesta (, officially ''Villa de San Carlos del Pie de la Cuesta'') is a city and municipality in the Santander Department in northeastern Colombia, South America. The city has a population of about 150,000. It is part of the metropolitan zone ...

, Floridablanca is one of the growth areas for the capital of Santander with numerous constructions happening in recent years.Hacia dónde va el crecimiento de Bucaramanga y el área
'' Vanguardia''. Accessed 27 November 2022.

Geography and climate

Floridablanca is situated at an altitude of about in the

of the Colombian

, though locally the topography varies greatly. To the east of the city the higher mountains of the Andes rise above the city, thrusted upwards by the north–south-trending Bucaramanga-Santa Marta Fault, one of the major megaregional faults of Colombia. The area is dominated by the Bucaramanga Nest, the second-most seismically active region in the world.Santander, el segundo nido sísmico más activo del mundo
/ref> Because of the relatively low altitude, the city enjoys a very favorable climate all year round. Floridablanca's climate is classified as tropical. When compared with winter, the summers have much more rainfall. The climate is classified as Aw (tropical savanna climate) by the Köppen-Geiger system. The average annual temperature is in Floridablanca. The rainfall averages per year.Climate-data.org - Floridablanca
/ref>

Geology and biology

The surrounding areas of urban Floridablanca are composed of the

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

Girón and Jordán formations, to the east of the Bucaramanga-Santa Marta Fault, running north–south in the east of the municipality, the

Precambrian The Precambrian ( ; or pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pC, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of t ...

Bucaramanga Gneiss and Early Jurassic La Corcova Quartzmonzonite crop out and the Ruitoque Massif comprises the Tambor Formation.Plancha 120, 2010 The rural areas surrounding the city are home to the

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

San Gil climbing salamander (''Bolitoglossa nicefori'').''Bolitoglossa nicefori''
at

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

RedList

History

Before the

Spanish conquest The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It ...

, the area of Floridablanca was populated by the

. The Guane were submitted to the rule of the

Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy (political entity), Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered ...

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

Martín Galeano Martín Galeano (?, Valencia del Mombuey, Badajoz, Spain - ?, Vélez, New Kingdom of Granada) was a Spanish conquistador of Genovese descent who is known as the founder of the towns of Vélez, Oiba and Charalá in Santander, Colombia. He took ...

when he founded Vélez in 1539, until then part of the

Muisca Confederation The Muisca Confederation was a loose confederation of different Muisca rulers (''zaques'', ''zipas'', ''iraca'', and ''tundama'') in the central Andes, Andean highlands of what is today Colombia before the Spanish conquest of the Americas, Spanis ...

. Modern Floridablanca was founded on 7 November 1817 as "Floridablanca de San Juan Nepomuceno" by Javier Guerra de Mier.History Floridablanca
floridablanca.gov.co. Accessed 27 November 2022. The church of San Juan Nepomuceno finished construction in 1832.Iglesia San Juan Nepomuceno
minube.com.co. Accessed 27 November 2022.

Demography

According to official DANE census, Floridablanca has 262,165 inhabitants, being the second most populated city in Santander. 47,37% are men, while 52,63% are women. 95,6% of the population over 5 years know how to write and read, meaning, illiteracy rate is about 4,4%. Statistics show that most of the adult people living in the city are from Bucaramanga: * 7,7% from Floridablanca * 44% from

* 33% from other cities of Santander * 16% from other departments

Economy

A study performed in 1998 provided data on the economical activities in Floridablanca, that has grown since those times. Commerce was the most important sector with 39% of the economical make-up, industrial production of clothing was nearly 10% and the food and drinks industry comprised 7% of the economical activities.Economy of Floridablanca
/ref> The production of sweets, and especially the traditional Colombian dessert of obleas, has given Floridablanca the name "the sweet municipality of Colombia".Floridablanca, el 'municipio dulce' de Colombia
/ref> The central part of the city hosts a concentration of malls; Cañaveral, constructed in 1984,Centro Comercial Cañaveral
/ref> and Parque Caracolí, inaugurated in 2013.Parque Caracolí
/ref> The city, in recent years grown to connect with Bucaramanga, forms the entry point to the

Chicamocha Canyon The Chicamocha Canyon ( , ) is a steep sided canyon carved by the Chicamocha River in Colombia. With a maximum depth of , an area of and a length of , the canyon is the second-largest worldwide. The canyon is situated in the departments of Bo ...

, located at an hour drive from the city, and hosts touristic activities with a

paragliding Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness or in a cocoon-like 'pod' suspended be ...

school on the ''Mesa de Ruitoque'', the Ruitoque Massif in the southwest of the city.El voladero de las águilas
/ref> Local buses to tourist hotspots as

San Gil San Gil is a town and municipality in the Department of Santander in northeastern Colombia, located roughly 300 km (192 mi) from Bogotá and 95 km from the department's capital, Bucaramanga. As of 2020, San Gil had a population of 5 ...

and the Chicamocha Canyon leave from a transport station called "Papi Quiero Piña" ("Dad, I want pineapple").Parador 'Papi Quiero Piña' fue encerrado con vallas
- Vanguardia The Jardín Botánico Eloy Valenzuela, a

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

in Floridablanca, was once owned by the El Paragüitas tobacco company. In 2017, the city was designated by the

Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism () or MCIT, is the national executive ministry of the Government of Colombia concerned with promoting economic growth In economics, economic growth is an increase in the quantity and quality o ...

as one of five "sustainable touristic destinations" of Colombia.Floridablanca: destino turístico sostenible en Santander
- Vanguardia

Schools

Some of the schools located in Floridablanca are:
Colegio Santa Isabel de Hungría in Spanish

La Quinta del Puente in Spanish

Panoramas

References

Bibliography

* {{Municipalities santander department Municipalities of Santander Department Populated places established in 1817 1817 establishments in the Spanish Empire