Santa Catarina is a city in
Santa Catarina Municipality in the state of
Nuevo León
Nuevo León, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nuevo León, is a Administrative divisions of Mexico, state in northeastern Mexico. The state borders the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosí, San Luis ...
,
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
that is part of the
Monterrey Metropolitan area
The Monterrey metropolitan area, also known as Greater Monterrey, refers to the surrounding urban agglomeration of Monterrey, Nuevo León. Officially called , the metropolitan area is the Metropolitan areas of Mexico, 2nd-largest in Mexico.
Ove ...
.
History
The name of this city comes from the Catholic
Saint Catherine of Alexandria
Catherine of Alexandria, also spelled Katherine, was, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, who was martyred in the early 4th century at the hands of the emperor Maxentius. According to her hagiography, she was both a princess a ...
.
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 (, , abbreviated as MtY) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. It is the ninth-largest city and the second largest metropolitan area, after Greater Mexico City. Located at the foothills of th ...
and
Saltillo
Saltillo () is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila and is also the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. Mexico City, Monterrey, and Saltillo are all connected by a major railroad and high ...
. 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 politician, military commander, and lawyer who served as the 26th president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in office in 1872. A Zapotec peoples, Zapotec, he w ...
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 human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...
. The category of
Village
A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...
was maintained until 1979 when the state government elevated its status to
City
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
.
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 and includes numerous very small localities outside of the city itself.
Most of the
National Park
A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...
Cumbres of Monterrey, including the
canyon
A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, 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 t ...
of
La Huasteca is located within Santa Catarina.
Also a certain portion of Cerro de las Mitras is located in Santa Catarina.
Climate
References
Further reading
*
External links
Link to tables of population data from Census of 2005INEGI: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática
Nuevo LeónEnciclopedia de los Municipios de México
Municipio de Santa CatarinaOfficial website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Catarina, Nuevo Leon
Populated places in Nuevo León
Monterrey metropolitan area
Populated places established in 1596