Ocaña is a city and municipality in the

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

n Department of

Norte de Santander Norte de Santander (Spanish for Northern Santander) () is a department of northeastern Colombia. It is in the north of the country, bordering Venezuela. Its capital is Cúcuta, one of the country's major cities. Norte de Santander is bordere ...

. Ocaña is the second largest populated center of this department. It played an important role during the

Independence of Colombia Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or Sovereign state, state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is ...

from the

Spanish monarchy The monarchy of Spain or Spanish monarchy () is the constitutional form of government of Spain. It consists of a hereditary monarch who reigns as the head of state, being the highest office of the country. The Spanish monarchy is constitu ...

History

The city was founded on 14 December 1570 by Captain Francisco Fernández de Contreras, as part of the third populating project of the east, patronised by the Audiencia y Cabildo de Pamplona. Contreras chose the Hacaritama Indigenous Society in order to have more control over the indigenous population of the area and thus be able to found the city. The first name the city received was Santa Ana de Hacarí when it was founded in 1570. During 1575, it was assigned the status of city with its current name, Ocaña. During the time of colonization, Fernandez de Contreras stated that all merchandise coming from Spain and destined for the Madgalena River should pass through the city. The city served as a commercial route during the Viceroyalty to connect the city of Pamplona with the Colombian Caribbean Coast. It also contributed to the development of commercial activities during the post-independence period. Given the geographic location of the settlement, the Audiencia de Santafé, presided over by Andrés Díaz Venero de Leiva, decided that the new town would fall under the jurisdiction of the province of Santa Maria, the governor of which was, at the time, Don Pedro Fernández del Busto. The name Ocaña was given to the new town to honour Fernández del Busto, who was born in Ocaña, Spain. The native peoples in the region were those traditionally called Hacaritamas and those called Cultura Mosquito (Mosquito Culture) or Bajomagdalenense. In 1828, Ocaña was the site of the inconclusive Convention of Ocaña led by Vice-president Santander where delegates attempted to reform

Gran Colombia Gran Colombia (, "Great Colombia"), also known as Greater Colombia and officially the Republic of Colombia (Spanish language, Spanish: ''República de Colombia''), was a state that encompassed much of northern South America and parts of Central ...

's written constitution. In 1849, during the period of the New Granada, the Congress ordered the creation of the province of Ocaña, in order to create a Provincial Chamber to legislate the creation of schools and land roads, in addition to organizing the public force and fairs. During the second half of the 19th century, Ocaña adopts a model, which generates that the area of Ocaña begins to establish commercial routes with Europe and North America. In 1935, the History Center of Ocaña was created, today it is the History Academy of Ocaña, in order to promote culture, in this had been members, historians, poets and influential musicians such as , thirteenth governor of Norte de Santander, the writer Luis Eduardo Paez Courvel influential in the literature of the department and one of the most prominent poets of the city, Jorge Pacheco Quintero.

Geography and climate

# Location: . The city of Ocaña is 610 km from

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 ...

. # Surface: 460 km², 2.2% of the North Santander Department total area # Height: 1,202 meters on the level of the sea Ocaña are on the Andean Eastern mountain range. The 2,600 mountains surround that reach msnm. Its average temperature is 22 °C.

Economy

The main economic activities are agriculture, the livestock raising, commerce, small industries and mining, with silver operation, copper and iron. The city is served by the Aguas Claras airport.

International Relations

Twin towns – sister cities

Iztapalapa Iztapalapa () is a borough (''demarcación territorial'') in Mexico City, located on the eastern side of the city. The borough is named after and centered on the formerly independent municipality of Iztapalapa (officially Iztapalapa de Cuitláhua ...

, Mexico

References