Barquisimeto

Nueva Segovia de Barquisimeto

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Nickname(s): "Capital musical de Venezuela" (English: " Musical capital of Venezuela) " " Ciudad Crepuscular" (English: "Twilight City")
Nueva Segovia de Barquisimeto
Coordinates: 10°03′49″N 69°20′05″W / 10.06361°N 69.33472°W / 10.06361; -69.33472Coordinates: 10°03′49″N 69°20′05″W / 10.06361°N 69.33472°W / 10.06361; -69.33472
Country VenezuelaVenezuela
State Lara
Municipality Iribarren
Founded 1552
Founded by Juan de Villegas
Government
 • Mayor Alfredo Ramos (La Causa Radical)
Area
 • Total 276 km2 (107 sq mi)
Elevation 566 m (1,857 ft)
Population (2011)
 • Total 1,995,770
 • Density 324.6/km2 (841/sq mi)
 • Demonym Barquisimetano(a)
Time zone VST (UTC-4:30)
 • Summer (DST) not observed (UTC-4:30)
Postal code 3001
Area code(s) 0251
Website Local Government Website (Spanish)
The area and population figures are for the municipality

Barquisimeto (Spanish pronunciation: [barkisiˈmeto]) is a city in Venezuela. It is the capital of the state of Lara and head of Iribarren Municipality. It is an important urban, industrial, commercial and transportation center of the country, recognized as the fourth-largest city by population and area in Venezuela after Caracas, Maracaibo and Valencia.

History

Barquisimeto was founded in 1552 by Juan de Villegas, as a headquarters and to have better control of the territory believed to be rich in gold. Its original name was "Nueva Segovia de Barquisimeto".

This city had four settlements due to ignorance of the physical environment of the region. The first one was in 1552 nearby Buría River, but moved in 1556 due to frequent floods suffered by inhabitants. The second one was in the valley of the Turbio River where the city stayed until Lope de Aguirre burned it down in 1561. Its rebuilding was made 102 km (63 mi), but in 1562 they asked for permission to move to another site due to strong winds blowing in the place. Finally, Barquisimeto was located on the north plateau of the Turbio River in 1563.

During the country's independence, Barquisimeto joined the liberation movement and its deputy José Ángel Álamo signed the Independence Act on July 5, 1811.

In 1929, the city went through a modernization program carried out by General Juan Vicente Gomez. He fixed the streets and avenues and buildings were built, like the Jacinto Lara Headquarters, the Government Palace and the Ayacucho Park.

Names and etymology

According to the German adventurer Nikolaus Federmann, the Caquetío aborigines used to call it Variquicimeto, which translates as "ash-colored river", the name with which the natives distinguished the water stream near the city. This river was named "Turbio River" by the Spanish conquerors, a name that is still in use today. Another possible name origin is due to a red dye called bariquí.

When Juan de Villegas founded it, he named the city "Nueva Segovia de Barquisimeto", but years later it became just "Barquisimeto", a word popularized by Oviedo y Baños in his book History and Conquest of the Venezuelan Population.

It is known as the Dusk City due to its beautiful sunsets.

Religion

The city's modern Barquisimeto Cathedral is the cathedral episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Barquisimeto.

Divina Pastora

Barquisimeto Cathedral

The Divina Pastora (Divine Shepherdess) is a statue of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus, with a lamb at her side. It is considered to be one of the most important religious icons of Venezuela. Divina Pastora is the patron saint of the city of Barquisimeto and of the Venezuelan National Militia. The original image dates from 1735. Divina Pastora is celebrated in a procession on January 14 of each year, when a massive Marian procession occurs, considered to be one of the largest in the world, attracting thousands of pilgrims.

The statue is removed from its shrine and is carried on the main streets of Barquisimeto in a procession which starts at the Iglesia de la Divina Pastora in Santa Rosa until it reaches the Barquisimeto Cathedral. This procession is unlike other mass Marian celebrations in the world, where the image does not leave its temple. This procession occurs due to the devotion the people of Barquisimeto have towards it as gratitude towards saving the city from a cholera outbreak that occurred in the city in the 19th century. In 2013, 3,000,000 faithful honored the Divina Pastora.

Geography

Barquisimeto is located on the terrace of the same name, on the banks of the Turbio River, 622 metres (2,040 feet) above sea level and a population that exceeds 800,000 inhabitants. It has a location on the central western of Venezuela (363 km (226 mi) from Caracas, the country's capital city), being a point of convergence of many of the major land routes and rail, characterized also by its street order and appropriate signage due to the location of the city with a relief almost completely flat, which facilitated the distribution of the urban grid and with the streets numbered in ascending numerical order, factors that help the foreign citizen and easily locate addresses. Its climate is pleasant in the months of December to March, with an average temperature of 26 °C (79 °F) throughout the year.

Neighboring municipalities

Climate

In the city, the cool climate is dominant. Located in that region, Barquisimeto records 650 mm (25.6 in) of rain per year and its average temperature ranges 19 °C (66 °F).

Although, in higher regions near the Andes, temperatures are lower and the rain is more constant. For instance, in Sanare city, the annual index of precipitations is 835 mm (32.9 in).

Large-magnitude earthquakes (Richter's scale):

Climate data for Barquisimeto, Venezuela
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 33.9
(93)		 35.4
(95.7)		 37.5
(99.5)		 35.6
(96.1)		 35.6
(96.1)		 34.0
(93.2)		 32.8
(91)		 33.8
(92.8)		 34.0
(93.2)		 34.1
(93.4)		 33.6
(92.5)		 32.8
(91)		 37.5
(99.5)
Average high °C (°F) 29.5
(85.1)		 30.3
(86.5)		 31.1
(88)		 30.4
(86.7)		 29.6
(85.3)		 28.9
(84)		 28.8
(83.8)		 29.7
(85.5)		 30.2
(86.4)		 30.2
(86.4)		 29.8
(85.6)		 29.1
(84.4)		 29.8
(85.6)
Daily mean °C (°F) 24.1
(75.4)		 24.7
(76.5)		 25.4
(77.7)		 25.5
(77.9)		 25.1
(77.2)		 24.6
(76.3)		 24.3
(75.7)		 24.8
(76.6)		 25.2
(77.4)		 25.2
(77.4)		 24.9
(76.8)		 24.1
(75.4)		 24.8
(76.6)
Average low °C (°F) 18.6
(65.5)		 19.0
(66.2)		 19.6
(67.3)		 20.6
(69.1)		 20.6
(69.1)		 20.2
(68.4)		 19.8
(67.6)		 19.9
(67.8)		 20.1
(68.2)		 20.2
(68.4)		 20.0
(68)		 19.1
(66.4)		 19.8
(67.6)
Record low °C (°F) 13.4
(56.1)		 13.2
(55.8)		 12.6
(54.7)		 15.2
(59.4)		 16.5
(61.7)		 16.1
(61)		 16.4
(61.5)		 15.4
(59.7)		 15.4
(59.7)		 15.1
(59.2)		 15.0
(59)		 13.8
(56.8)		 12.6
(54.7)
Average rainfall mm (inches) 9
(0.35)		 8
(0.31)		 14
(0.55)		 65
(2.56)		 75
(2.95)		 78
(3.07)		 77
(3.03)		 53
(2.09)		 39
(1.54)		 49
(1.93)		 48
(1.89)		 25
(0.98)		 540
(21.26)
Average rainy days (≥ 1.0 mm) 1.5 1.2 1.7 5.5 7.9 12.0 10.6 8.1 5.8 6.1 6.4 4.0 70.8
Average relative humidity (%) 68.5 66.5 65.5 70.0 74.0 75.0 74.5 73.0 72.5 73.0 73.0 72.0 71.5
Mean monthly sunshine hours 260.4 235.2 241.8 183.0 192.2 201.0 232.5 241.8 228.0 226.3 222.0 248.0 2,712.2
Source #1: Instituto Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología (INAMEH)[1][2]
Source #2: NOAA (extremes, precipitation, and sun)[3]

Education

Mosaic Rectorate of the Universidad Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado.

Barquisimeto is a city with a historic vocation by academic knowledge, and boasts a considerable sample of universities and institutes of higher education in Venezuela, has a high and growing student population from all over the country.

Major universities in the city include Universidad Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado and Universidad Nacional Experimental Politécnica Antonio José de Sucre.

Other universities and colleges

Public institutions
Private institutions

Hospitals

Private hospitals

Address: Carrera 19 esquina calle 34

Address: Carrera 21

Address: Av. Lara (paseo Los Leones y calle Madrid)

Address: Av. Los Abogados (calles 16 y 17). 50 mts. from Av. Vargas

Address: Calle 34 (carreras 19 y 20)

Address: Av. Pedro León Torres (calle 59). CC Sotavento

Public hospitals

Address: Av. Libertador

Address: Barrio La Feria

Transportation

The mode of transportation most commonly used are the “rapiditos”, old automobiles with an average capacity of 5 passengers, with a route similar to the buses and used mainly to shuttle people between downtown and the suburbs, like the shared cabs in other countries.

The Transbarca system is a new "bus rapid transit" (BRT) system under construction, which was originally planned to use trolleybuses. When construction began, in 2006, the system was projected to serve an average of 170,000 people per day when completed, using 80 trolleybuses operating along 30 km (19 mi) of exclusive lanes, across the metropolitan area. Service was planned to include an express route of 22 km (14 mi) along with one local route of 8 km (5 mi). With 52 stations, the BRT system is to include a centralized system of communication and security, and structures for easy access for elderly and disabled people. It is to be complemented with feeder routes, covering the areas of Greater Barquisimeto the BRT line will not serve, which will connect with the main line at terminal stations.

Although 80 articulated trolleybuses were purchased from Neoplan and delivered around 2008–09,[4] the plans to operate the Transbarca system with those vehicles were dropped in 2013.[5] In addition to reasons of cost, an inadequate supply of electricity with which to power the system was cited in the announcement of the decision.[6]

The airport is called Jacinto Lara International Airport.

Sports

View of the Antonio Herrera Gutiérrez Baseball Stadium

The city is home to several notable baseball and football teams. Several other sports also have Barquisimeto as their home.

*Club Deportivo Lara: (English: Laras Sport Club) is a soccer team and it is the actual champion of the Venezuelan Professional Soccer League. It was founded in 2006 as Guaros de Lara FC, they were placed in the Segunda División Venezolana but at the end of the 2006 season the team was promoted to the Primera División Venezolana, after a win in the last round of the Segunda División against Estudiantes de Mérida Fútbol Club that left them in 2nd place of division 2. For the 2007/08 season, Guaros de Lara bought the former outstanding Colombian World Cup goal-keeper René Higuita, who returned to play football at the age of 41. In 2009 the club was sold in an effort to fight against the other clubs for the championship and changed its name to Club Deportivo Lara.As Club Deportivo Lara Lara, it was born July 1, 2009 through the purchase of the club by some employers (Arid García, Luis Yepez, Juan Conde, Carlos Hernandez) and the former team had been struggling financially. This new policy for football betting in the state lara and I think this team under the slogan "Believe in Lara." The team achieved its first year stay in the top four of the cumulative overall, just behind Caracas FC, Deportivo Italia and Deportivo Táchira and, the latter being the worst hit since the last dates of the Apertura and Clausura was severed its aspiration in the hands of the team. Until Torneo Apertura 2011 when they became champion of Venezuelan Professional Soccer League.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Estadísticos Básicos Temperaturas y Humedades Relativas Máximas y Mínimas Medias" (pdf). INAMEH (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 October 2012.
  2. ↑ "Estadísticos Básicos Temperaturas y Humedades Relativas Medias" (pdf). INAMEH (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 October 2012.
  3. ↑ "Barquisimeto Climate Normals 1961–1990". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  4. ↑ Trolleybus Magazine No. 306 (November–December 2012), p. 148.
  5. ↑ Trolleybus Magazine No. 311 (September–October 2013), p. 138.
  6. ↑ Pérez Terán, Daniel (5 July 2013). "Ministro El Troudi: Transbarca debe estar terminado el 14-S" [Minister El Troudi: Transbarca must be completed on 14-S (14 September)]. El Impulso (in Spanish). Retrieved 9 August 2015.

External links

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