Florencia, Caquetá Department, Colombia

🇨🇴 Florencia is a municipality and capital city of the Department of Caquetá, Colombia. It is the most important city in south-west Colombia because of its population as well as its more than a hundred years of history. It is the boundary between mountains and the Amazon. It lies on the Orteguaza River which flows into the Caqueta River.

Etymology The name of the city pays homage to an Italian businessman dedicated to the rubber trade, Paolo Ricci, from the city of Florence.

History The area where Florencia is located was inhabited by tribes of the Andaquí ethnic group. The territory where the city is located was also inhabited by Witoto and Coreguaje  tribes. In 1542, the territory was explored for the first time by the Spanish conquistador, Hernán Pérez de Quesada. Florencia was founded on December 25, 1902 by Capuchin Friar Doroteo De Pupiales (1876-1959) Born in Pupiales, Nariño, Colombia. Rubber plantations around several areas of what is now known as the department of Caqueta encouraged the creation of the city next to the Hacha River . The city became an important site after the creation of the trail between the settlement and the town of Guadalupe in what is now the department of Huila.

Geography Florencia is located at the foot of the Cordillera Oriental mountain range. The municipality of Florencia limits to the north with the Huila Department and the municipality of El Paujil, to the east with the municipalities of El Paujil and La Montañita, to the south with the municipalities of Milán and Morelia, and to the west with the municipality of Belén de Andaquies and the Huila Department.

Economy According to a report of the first half of 2022 by the MinCIT, the main economic activities of the city were Trade and repair of vehicles with 22.6%, followed by Public Administration and Defense with 18.8% and third, Artistic Activities with 10.9%.

Heritage Sites • El Encanto Petroglyphs: These petroglyphs are located to the left of the Hacha River near Barrio Torasso. The engravings are approximately 16 meters long. They were first described by archaeologist Eliécer Silva Celis in 1963. Among the petroglyphs are Zoomorphic and Human figures. • Curiplaya Building: A historic building of colonial architecture built in the 1950s. This building served as a hotel, currently it houses some cultural entities of the municipality and the department. In addition it is the headquarters of the Palace of Culture and Fine Arts of the Amazon (Spanish: Palacio de la Cultura y Bellas Artes de la Amazonía). The building was declared a national cultural property in 2000 by the Colombian Ministry of Culture. The name "Curiplaya" means "Golden Beach" in the Witoto language.