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Santa Marta, officially Santa Marta Tourist, Cultural and Historical District, is the capital of the department of Magdalena, Colombia. It was founded on July 29, 1525 by the Spanish Rodrigo de Bastidas, which according to the texts makes it the oldest standing city in Colombia. It is located on the shores of the bay of the same name.

It is known for its tourist activities, the history of its streets and its beaches. The El Rodadero spa is one of the main destinations in the Colombian Caribbean. Its urban area is located between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Caribbean Sea and the Tayrona Park is under its jurisdiction. Among its cultural and historical attractions are the Customs House, the Basilica Cathedral, the Bank of the Republic Library, the San Juan Nepomuceno Seminary, the Paseo Bastidas, the Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, the Plaza de Bolívar and the Los Novios park.

Its most populated nucleus and with the greatest commercial activity is the central zone, from where the city developed from the XVII century. The plane between Carrera Primera and Avenidas Santa Rita and Avenida del Ferrocarril frames its historic center and its commercial center, as well as its beach tourism center in the El Rodadero area.

The city is also known for having been the place where Simón Bolívar died in 1830 in a hacienda called Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, which at that time was located on the outskirts of the city of Santa Marta.

History

Pre-Columbian times

See also: Época precolombina (Colombia)

The Tayrona Culture flourished before the times of the Spanish conquest in the current territory of Santa Marta and in the north-northwest of the Sierra Nevada. The native peoples of the region currently occupied by Santa Marta were noted for their masterful work of goldsmithing and engineering. Among them are the most developed urban sites of pre-Hispanic Colombia, such as the archaeological ruins of Pueblito (Chayrama) in the Tayrona National Park, the Lost City (Teyuna ) in the upper Buritaca River and the La Reserva area, at the headwaters of the Frío River in Ciénaga.

Conquest

17th and 18th centuries

In the year 1600 the Spanish governor organized an armed contingent against the indigenous confederates of Jeriboca, Mamatoco, Bonda, Masinga, Durama, Origua, Dibókaka, Donama, Masaka and Chengue.

Around 1619, King Philip III appointed Francisco Martínez de Ribamontán Santander, from whom Francisco de Paula Santander descends by direct line, governor of Santa Marta. Around 1650, the city had eight blocks and twenty one-story houses Its streets were narrow and dusty and its houses were built of brick, mud and reeds, and were thatched.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the incursions of the Chimila and Wayuu indigenous people continued. At the same time, the city suffered dozens of attacks by pirates, who looted and burned it on several occasions. To this end, between the centuries XVII and XVIII, the colonial authorities built six forts and two sailboats.

During the last years of the Colony, the city saw part of its architectural heritage emerge with works such as the Cathedral, the Customs House and the San Juan Nepomuceno Seminary. At the end of the century XVIII, the city reached up to Carrera Tercera and its population reached 3,600 inhabitants. Much of the investment in infrastructure and commerce was concentrated in Cartagena, and Santa Marta lived in relative isolation.

In 1787, Carlos III issued a Royal Decree in which he ordered the construction of the San Miguel Cemetery on the outskirts of the city. In 1808, the San Miguel Cemetery was inaugurated on the old road to Gaira. During this period, the colonial authorities ruled in favor of the indigenous people and against the interests of the landowners, which had important repercussions during the Magdalena Campaign and the rest of the Independence.

19th century

During Independence, the criollos of Santa Marta were moved above all by their rivalry with Cartagena, and therefore by the Bolivarian armies, and the indigenous people by the perception that the colonial authorities were more equanimous with them than the criollos. On January 6, 1813, the city was taken under the command of General Pierre Labatut. This led to the destruction of a good part of Santa Marta, which in turn led the City Council to support the Spanish expeditionary force. in charge of the Reconquest.

In 1830, the body of Simon Bolivar was buried in a vault of the Basilica Cathedral. He was there until 1842, when he was transferred to Caracas.

In fact, on July 22, 1815, the Spanish general Pablo Morillo and his royalist army entered the city. There, The Pacifier gave a medal to all those who defended the province of Cartagena interests. In turn, from there he organized the siege of Cartagena. On November 11, 1820, when Santa Marta was taken, the independence troops left 700 dead and 400 wounded (mostly indigenous people recruited by the Spanish).

Although between the years 1840 and 1870, the city became the main importing and exporting port of the newly independent New Granada. Indeed, during this period important transport companies developed, such as the Santa Marta Steamship Company The development of a regional railway network also began, which did not prosper.

However, during the same period the population decreased, going from about 6,000 inhabitants in 1835 to less than 4,500 in 1851. This was due to several catastrophic events, such as the earthquake of 1834, the cholera epidemic of 1849 and the floods of the Manzanares river of 1850, as well as the political instability and revolutions that occurred in the region during this period.

On April 1, 1848, the city inaugurated the Fountain of the Four Faces in an old ditch in the Plaza de Bolívar to commemorate the abolition of slavery in Colombia. At the end of the century, the Sierra Nevada became an important center of coffee production. However, bananas were the main agricultural product of the region; in 1899, five companies make up the United Fruit Company.

20th and 21st centuries

During the first decades of the XX century, tobacco, cocoa and especially bananas brought prosperity to the region and unleashed a wave of migration. The bonanza left some Republican buildings in Santa Marta such as the Palace of Justice and other buildings on Libertador and Santa Rita avenues.

On April 17, 1913, Governor José María Campo Serrano reported the results of several autopsies indicating "infectious pneumonia"; To these cases were added others in other cities of the Colombian Caribbean and it is feared that they were cases of plague. At the end of that year the national government allocated 25,000 pesos for the sanitation of the port of Santa Marta and the creation of a bacteriology laboratory.

The Palace of Justice, a neo-classical building from the beginning of the 20th century on the south side of the Park of Los Novios.

In 1928, a strike by banana, railroad, and port workers ended in a massacre in the Ciénaga plaza at the hands of the Army at the service of the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita). The workers they demanded better working conditions and payments in current currency and not in company vouchers. The massacre left several hundred dead by bullets and was denounced in Congress by the liberal politician Jorge Eliécer Gaitán and narrated by Gabriel García Márquez in One Hundred Years of Solitude. During the following decades, banana exploitation declined and in the middle of the century it moved to Urabá, in Antioquia.

In the 1950s the tourist industry began to develop with the construction of hotels on the beach of El Rodadero and a road to connect them with Santa Marta. In 1958 the University of Magdalena opened its doors and in 1964 it was created Tayrona Park, a 15,000-hectare natural park that goes from sea level to 900 m a.s.l. no. m. In the 1970s, marijuana crops appeared, the exploitation of which was left in the hands of violent gangster groups and which the writer Laura Restrepo described in her novel El leopard in the sun. Negative consequences for tourism plunged the region into a multi-decade crisis.

Since the beginning of the XXI century, Santa Marta became one of the main coal ports in the country. and 2005, its exports went from 2.3 million tons to 28 million, that is, more than half of the national total. These activities had severe environmental damage that had a negative impact on tourism. On January 13, In 2013, the Drummond Company dumped nearly 500 tons of coal into the bay after a barge incident.

On March 13, 2017, the new Simón Bolívar International Airport was inaugurated. In November of the same year, the city organized the XVIII Bolivarian Games, which had a record number of participants. Within the framework of these fairs, sports facilities such as the Sierra Nevada Stadium in the Bureche sector, the Bolivarian Baseball Stadium, the Rugby stadium, the Major Coliseum, a skating rink, the Gaira Coliseum, an aquatic complex and a BMX track were inaugurated.

Toponymy and identity elements

When Bastidas received the capitulation in 1524 to create a population in this area, the region was already known as Santa Marta (the territory had not yet been conquered), in fact already in 1519 when Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo requested the authorization to populate it, it probably already received that name.

First and second coat of arms of Santa Marta.

Because of this, it is considered that what would later be called the Province of Santa Marta or the bay of the same name were so called during the reconnaissance trip of Bastidas and Juan de la Cosa located between 1500 and 1502 and in which they placed name to other places and geographical features of the Colombian north coast. There is a hypothesis that the name was given because they passed through the bay on February 23, the day of Santa Marta de Astorga.

Despite the foregoing, it is generally accepted that the name of the city was given by its founder, Rodrigo de Bastidas, for the day it was founded, namely July 29, the day of Santa Marta. According to Antonio Julián: he happily reached port in the Province of his destination on July 29, a day dedicated in honor of the glorious Santa Marta for whose reason he named the city that he later founded next to the Port Santa Marta name that spread to the entire Province,...

Flag

The flag of Santa Marta has two colors: white and blue; the white, all united without rancor for this land; blue is the sky, it is the sea, it is the magical and silvery horizon in the mountains.

The city did not fully clarify its coat of arms, due in large part to internal wars, fires, piracy and other acts that the city endured during the conquest and even the colony. The first shield that the city used was granted by Felipe II of Spain, in force in 1572. The second that was used was granted by Carlos III.

Since May 1929, the Mayor's Office of Santa Marta began to use the shield of the tower and the boat with four oars on its letterhead stationery, considering it the oldest of the coats of arms that the city has held. However, that left aside the Immaculate Conception that had been granted by the Spanish monarch in 1774, so from 1951 the municipal government included the virgin in its arms, as it is today.

Government

Main facade of the neoclassical building of the City Hall.

Santa Marta is located in the north of the department of Magdalena, on the shores of the Caribbean Sea. It is governed by a democratically elected mayor for a four-year term. Its headquarters are located in the Municipal Palace, a neoclassical building located on the northeast side of the Plaza de Bolívar.

Since January 1, 2020, the mayor is Virna Johnson of the Fuerza Ciudadana movement.

Political-administrative organization

Santa Marta is the capital of the department of Magdalena. It has an administrative division of three towns that cover almost the entire urban area and also some rural areas.

Each locality is divided into communes and these in turn into neighborhoods and urbanizations. On the outskirts of the city there are corregimientos or small towns, which are considered as rural areas.

The territorial segmentation was determined in Agreement 009 of July 17, 2015. This also stipulates the number of members of the Local Administrative Boards, JAL, co-administrators of the mayors' management, that is, they perform similar functions to those of the Council of Santa Marta, but in a local setting.

The administrative structure of the towns of Santa Marta depends on the District Mayor's Office, followed by the Government Secretariat and the Community Participation Office.

Communes of the urban area of Santa Marta

The following is the list of the localities of the city with their respective communes or corregimientos.

Locality I (Cultural Tayrona-San Pedro Alejandrino) is constituted by Commune 1 (María Eugenia-Pando), Comuna 6 (Mamatoco-11 November), Comuna 9 (Parque-Bureche), and Bonda and Guachaca corrections.

Locality II (Historic-Rodrigo de Bastidas) is made up of Commune 2 (Central), Commune 3 (Pescaíto-Almendro-John XXIII), Commune 4 (Polideportivo-El Jardin), Commune 5 (Santa Fe-Bastidas) and Taganga's correction.

Locality III (Caribbean Tourist-Perla) is composed of Commune 7 (Gaira-El Rodadero), Commune 8 (Pozos Colorados-Don Jaca) and the Minca Corridor.

The rural area is made up of the corregimientos of Bonda, Guachaca, Minca, Taganga and the Indigenous Reservation (Lost City or Teyuna), among which are the villages of Tigrera, Cabañas de Buritaca, Cañaveral (Cold Water), Colinas de Calabazo, Curvalito, Guacoche, Calabazo, Marquetalia, Paz del Caribe, Perico Aguao, La Olla, La Revuelta, Las Colinas, El Trompo, La Aguacatera, Machete Pelao, Mexico, Valle de Gaira, Playa Blanca, La Planta, La Lisa, El Curval, El Campano and San Lorenzo.

Geography

Satellite view of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

Pico Cristóbal Colón

The average height of the city is 2 m s. no. m.. However, in the territory of the municipality the height rises to 5775 m s. no. m. on the Cristóbal Colón Peak, which is the highest in all of Colombia. This is located in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, which is the highest coastal mountainous area in the world.

The city center is located on the shores of the Santa Marta bay on the Caribbean Sea, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the department of Magdalena. This extends from Punta Betín, in front of the islet of El Morro, to the north, to Punta Gaira, to the south of the colonial zone.

Satellite view of Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta.

Although Punta Betín is now integrated into the Port of Santa Marta, in the past it housed important places in the history of the Northern Quarter of the city, such as the beaches of Taganguilla, Ancón and Anconcito.

Although there are some informal dwellings on the rocky hills that make up Punta Betín, the traditional historic center is organized around Central Beach, which stretches from the city port to the mouth of the Manzanares River, south of the bay. In Playa Central the slope of the platform is very gentle and has a meadow of turtle grass on the so-called Poveda bank.

Comuna 7 extends along the coast to the Simón Bolívar International Airport. From south to north, it includes Ziruma Hill, where Punta Gaira, Playa Blanca, Playa Calderón and Punta Cabeza de Negro meet. In turn, they include the Gaira cove, where the El Rodadero spa is located, the mouth of the Gaira river, the Salguero beach sector, near Punta Gloria.

For its part, Commune 8 includes the beaches of Pozos Colorados and the Don Jaca sector, which correspond to approximately half of the samarium coastline.

Climate

The average temperature is 27º °C, and its average minimum temperature is 23 °C and average maximum is 32 °C. In the urban area, a warm tropical semi-arid climate BShx predominates in the Köppen climate classification, and due to the difference in the topography of the other territories of the municipality, all the thermal floors occur, and various types of vegetation, as tropical humid, dry and mountain just a few kilometers from each other in the area that includes this mountainous massif, resulting in the city with the greatest biodiversity in the world.

The main rainy months are June, July, September and October, and the driest are from December to April. Rainfall is scarce, about 500 mm per year.

Santa Marta during the rainy days

Average climate parameters of Simón Bolívar Airport (1971-2000)
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Temp. max. abs. (°C)	37.0	38.2	37.0	37.6	37.4	37.4	37.8	37.4	37.2	36.2	38.2	37.6	38.2
Average temperature (°C)	32.9	33.5	33.7	33.5	32.8	32.6	32.8	32.5	32.0	31.6	31.8	32.2	32.7
Average temperature (°C)	27.1	27.7	28.2	28.8	28.9	28.9	28.7	28.4	28.0	27.7	27.7	27.3	27.3
Temp. medium (°C)	21.7	22.8	23.8	24.9	25.1	24.7	24.1	24.1	23.9	23.7	23.3	22.1	23.7
Temp. min. abs. (°C)	17.4	18.3	20.0	19.0	18.0	19.0	18.0	18.0	17.0	17.0	17.0	18.0	17.0
Rains (mm)	4	3	2	9	51	60	57	55	88	111	47	13	500
Days of rain (≥ 1 mm)	0	1	1	2	7	9	9	12	14	13	7	2	77
Hours of sun	285	248	253	231	225	229	235	226	205	213	230	273	2853
Relative humidity (%)	73	72	70	72	76	76	76	77	79	80	78	75	75.3
Source: Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM)

Hydrography

The Manzanares River at its pass through Commune 4.

The city is crossed by the Manzanares and Gaira rivers, which originate in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and flow into the bay of Santa Marta at the beaches popularly known as Los Cocos, and Gaira port, respectively. Likewise, at its origin and first stretch, the Manzanares River is called the Bonda River, whose water is suitable for bathers.

As it flows towards the urban area, after passing through Mamatoco the river continues its course near the quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, the neighborhoods that border the southern part of Avenida del Río and stops when it enters the street 30, has already received the waters of the Tamacá stream, finally in the last part of its journey it passes through the neighborhood of the same name.

The Manzanares, which at some point provided clean water to the first settlers, is today an icon in the city of environmental imbalance due to the erosion of its banks and pollution.

The Gaira in its lower part runs through the Commune of Gaira-Rodadero in the south. In its upper part it runs through the Minca corregimiento, in which the Minca river is also found.

Other Samarian rivers are the Piedras, the Guachaca, the Mendihuaca, the Buritaca, the Don Diego and the Palomino, which forms the natural limit with the department of La Guajira, to the east and to the south by the Toribio and Córdoba rivers, which makes natural limit in its last section with the municipality of Ciénaga.

El Morro, located in the heart of Santa Marta Bay.

El Morro

The islet of El Morro, considered sacred for the ethnic groups that inhabit the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, is about 65 m high. It originated due to the erosion of the mountains immersed in the sea.

According to city historians, El Morro was a fundamental part of the city's history since its founding, since the conquerors saw it as a reference point for the town of Santa Marta. It was used to defend against pirate attacks when the Morro fort was built on it.

This is how the Samarian historian Arturo Bermúdez Bermúdez documents it in his book Pirates in Santa Marta:

"In 1739 Governor Juan Vera had 2 batteries placed on the nose, one with 10" and 12" and the other with 4 medium cannons. In 1743 Governor Juan Aristegui y Avilés built a battery and a trench on the hill. Later, Governor Gregorio Rosales Troncoso, following the plans of Don Antonio Arévalo, built the Morro fort with a high battery to the south. The engineer Agustín Crame also worked at the Fuerte del Morro. This fort had prominent events in independence and in the Republic".

Today, El Morro is a tourist site in the city, it has a lighthouse, one of the few that exists, belonging to the port captaincy.

Demographics

According to the 2018 DANE general census, the total population of Santa Marta is 499,192 inhabitants.

According to the figures presented by DANE from the 2018 census, whites and mestizos make up 94.6 percent of the population, Afro-descendants 3.5 percent, and indigenous people 1.6 percent.

Economy

Eastern coast of Bolivar Park. In the foreground, the Source of the four faces. To the bottom, the Building of the Banks.

The economy of Santa Marta is based on tourism, commerce, port activity, fishing and agriculture, in that same order. The District maintains an agricultural production of 16,053 tons, cultivated in an area of 44 051 hectares. The main agricultural products are: bananas, coffee, cocoa, fruit trees and cassava.

Tourism

Santa Marta has been known as The Pearl of America since Father Antonio Julián gave it that name in the 18th century XVIII. Its current tourism promotion slogan is The magic of having it all. In addition to several beaches and sites of historical value, it has the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, which has archaeological sites such as Ciudad Perdida, located between 900 and 1200 m s. no. m..

El Rodadero Spa.

Cabo San Juan in Tayrona Park

To the south, separated from the bay of Santa Marta by the Ziruma hill, is El Rodadero beach. This occupies a privileged position in the Gaira cove and is the area with the highest socioeconomic level of the Gaira - Rodadero Commune. The beach is located 5 km south of downtown Santa Marta and is connected to it by Hernández Pardo avenue.

To the north, behind the Pescaíto hills, is the tourist beach of Taganga. This, in turn, is used as the port of departure Tayrona Park, a forest reserve located 34 km from the city with heights from sea level to 900 m s. no. m.. To the west of the park, at kilometer 56 on the road to Riohacha, is Quebrada Valencia, a small river that forms a series of high-altitude waterfalls and wells (natural pools). It is considered a nature reserve and has a great variety of fauna and flora.

Pre-Columbian terraces in Lost City hills.

In the Plaza de Bolívar, next to the boardwalk, is the Customs House, where the body of Simón Bolívar rested in a burning chamber. Currently it is the headquarters of the Tayrona Gold Museum of the Banco de la República.

The city also has several places of cultural interest. Among them stands out the Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, the XVII century hacienda where Simón Bolívar spent his last days and in the who died on December 17, 1830, and the Cathedral Basilica of Santa Marta, built in the 1760s and the first in ecclesiastical jurisdiction in South America. This temple houses a small urn containing the heart and entrails of Simón Bolívar. In turn, there are the remains of the founder of Santa Marta, Rodrigo de Bastidas.

Also at the end of the XVIII century, construction began on the San Juan Nepomuceno Cloister, which was inaugurated for almost half a century later, in 1811. This is located on the corner of Calle Grande (calle 17) with Callejón del Seminario (carrera 2) and has housed various institutions, such as the Real Seminario Conciliar. The Customs House dates back to 1745 and has survived fires, earthquakes and looting by pirates.

Taganga

For its part, the Old San Juan de Dios Hospital is an art deco building built in the mid-20th centuryXX and declared a national monument on April 16, 1999. It currently houses the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Magdalena.

In turn, the House of Madame Agustine is located on the corner of Calle Real or Calle Grande (calle 17), with Callejón Real or callejón de Don Pedro Salas (carrera 4) in the historic center of the city, this mansion is a colonial jewel built in 1745. An elegant French lady named “Madame Agustine” lived there.

Since its renovation in 2008, Los Novios park has become one of the gastronomic and tourist centers of the city. In addition to housing centuries-old buildings with heritage value such as the Palace of Justice and the Old Fourth School, this park today has important bars and nightclubs.

Infrastructure

Santa Marta is an important port for the country, thanks to its geographical location as it has a natural draft that benefits the passage and boarding of ships, as well as being the deepest port in the American continent and one of the most world insurance. Therefore, many are the commercial boats that arrive at the city, which contributes to the economy of the region. The Santa Marta Port Society is the organization in charge of the ports.

Since 2007, adaptation and reconstruction works have been carried out in the historic center of the city and infrastructure in the port with a view to confronting the Free Trade Agreement between Colombia and the United States.

See also: Annex:Higher buildings in Santa Marta

Transportation

Terrestrial

To reach the City the main road is the Troncal Road of the Caribbean which to the northwest communicates with Riohacha (165 km) and to the southwest with Barranquilla (93 km), Cartagena (209 km); also communicated by the Troncal del Magdalena with the capitals of the departments and numerous cities of the interior of the country, including Capital Bogotá. The city has a land transport terminal that serves both the city and neighboring municipalities in the interdepartmental bus service.

Public transport bus at Santa Rita Avenue.

Within the city we can highlight the road network provided by Avenida del Libertador, Avenida del Río and Avenida Santa Rita (Calle 22) that basically go from east to west; Carreras 1, 2, 5, 19, Avenida Hernández Pardo that goes in the direction of Rodadero and Avenida del Ferrocarro, in a North-South direction. There are several companies in charge of public transport.

Taxi in the historic center.

Public service taxis are identified by being yellow, for these a minimum ride costs around $5000, and it can be more expensive if the ride goes to some place in the periphery. In addition there are inter-municipal taxi services 'door to door'. As of 2008, taxis are required to have a price list for all destinations within the urban perimeter and outside it.

Currently, the District of Santa Marta has certain restrictions on circulation. For private vehicles, it restricts circulation and transit in the Historic Center between seven in the morning and seven at night according to the last number on the license plate. For motorcycle-type vehicles, restrict their circulation and transit throughout the District between the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. m. and 7:00 p.m. m. according to the last license plate number. Restrict the circulation of vehicles such as motorcycles, motorcycles, motorcycles, and ATVs throughout the District on the 20th of each month. In addition, for drivers of private vehicles, motorcycles and public service transport, certain restrictions are imposed on circulation in the Historic Center.

Aerial

Facade of Simon Bolivar International Airport.

Main article: Simón Bolívar International Airport

16 km from the city center is the Simón Bolívar International Airport (IATA: SMR, ICAO: SKSM). The terminal receives flights from Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Pereira and Bucaramanga, these routes are operated by the airlines Avianca, LATAM Colombia, Wingo and Viva Air Colombia. The airport was awarded a concession in 2011, and expects to receive an investment of 26 million dollars, among the modernization plans is the expansion of the runway from 1,700 m to 2,200 m, and increasing the width of the runway from 40 m to 45 m.

Maritime

Offices of the Harbour Society of Santa Marta.

The Santa Marta Port Society, which began operations in 1993, is a mixed economy company founded by 60 companies, including banana organizations, shipping companies, the department of Magdalena, the district of Santa Marta and other businessmen. Currently, it is the port operator of the city with authorization from the Superintendency of Ports.

Containers and cranes in the Port.

The Santa Marta Port Society has piers in the bay of Santa Marta that operate 24 hours a day, every day of the year. It has rail service and the possibility of direct loading and unloading at the docks. The port is located in the northwestern corner of the city, framed to the north by the San Martín hills and to the west by Ancón hill and the Tanganilla cove. The Zulia oil pipeline ends in the Gaira bay, which has a wharf oil monobuoy.

In 2018, the port movement in the Santa Marta Port Zone was 104,611 TEU, ranking 62nd in the list of port activity in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Iron

Main article: Santa Marta Railway

The train was the protagonist of foreign trade and therefore of the development of the Samaria economy between 1892 and 1988. A decade later it was decided to reactivate the use of this means of transport, which brought with it the provision of transport services for charge to different users. Rail transport has established itself in northern Colombia as one of the safest and most efficient means. Its importance for the country's competitiveness in the field of globalization is of such magnitude that for this reason the national government decides to expand the capacity of the line between the sections of Chiriguaná and the Port of Santa Marta.

Starting in 2017, the line between Santa Marta and La Dorada will start operating again, making Santa Marta the pioneer of rail transport in the country. This same line is planned to work for passenger and cargo trains. ^{[citation required]}

Education

Entrance of the Celedon Lyceum.

As far as schools are concerned, Santa Marta has both public and private primary and secondary schools. The University of Magdalena is the only public one. It was founded in 1958, it is the largest in the department and one of the best universities in the Caribbean region of Colombia. Private universities in the city are the Sergio Arboleda University, the Autonomous University of Colombia, the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University of Bogotá, the Cooperative University of Colombia, Antonio Nariño University and the National Unified Corporation of Higher Education (CUN).

There are also campuses of the UNAD, the Universidad del Norte and the Remington University Corporation which do not have a university campus, but rather small postgraduate campuses such as the Universidad del Norte and some undergraduate and postgraduate courses such as the other universities mentioned. There is also a branch of the Banco de la República library.

As for language institutes, the city has headquarters of the Colombo-Americano and the Alliance française. The city also has two Sena headquarters, Sena Comercial (in Avenida Ferrocarril) and Sena Industrial and Sena Agropecuario (in Gaira).

Culture

House of Madame Agustine, in the historical center.

Banco de la República Library in Plaza de Bolívar.

Santa Marta has the Luis Ángel Arango libraries of the Banco de la República, the Cajamag, the Elisa Fernández Nieves (in Gaira), the Seine and Invemar.

Among its museums, the Bolivarian Museum of Contemporary Art stands out, which opened its doors in 1986 and is located in the Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, which has more than 200 works, and the Gold Museum and Casa de la Customs, which is located in the Plaza de Bolívar, and which was declared a National Monument in 1974. The Ethnographic Museum of the University of Magdalena was inaugurated in December 2005 with three rooms dedicated to the stories, places and daily life of the different social groups that inhabit the region.

For its part, the Museo del Mar Aquarium is located a few minutes by boat from El Rodadero. It exhibits turtles, sharks, tarpon, coral, dolphins and seals.

The International Caribbean Theater Festival is held annually, which includes some free events of an educational and/or entertainment nature. In 2012 it held its 23rd edition with participants from Spain, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba and Argentina.

In turn, Santa Marta is the birthplace of singer Carlos Vives.

One of the typical dishes is the cayeye, it has its origin in the banana zone of the department in the municipalities of Ciénaga, Zona Bananera, Santa Marta, Fundación, and Aracataca. It consists of green bananas cooked and later crushed, accompanied by grated coastal cheese, butter and milk. Many people also mix it with pork rinds or a typical regional stew.

Architecture and urbanism

Cross 7 A with race 4 A in El Rodadero.

The Castle, old hotel in the Malecón.

Building of the Industrial Technical Institute.

Facades in the North.

The grid plan predominates in the main apse, adopted from Roman architecture by the Spanish and later imposed in Latin America, as is the case of the Basilica Cathedral of Santa Marta. This sector preserves several buildings but its colonial character has virtually disappeared. Some few buildings are still visible, most of them from the Republican Period, but many others have been replaced by modern buildings.

The Cathedral stands out especially with an architectural sense that makes it unique in Latin America and inside which the remains of Rodrigo de Bastidas, its founder, still rest. Also located in the Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, the farm where Simón Bolívar died, the Customs House or the San Juan de Nepomuceno Cloister. It is also worth mentioning the buildings of the Liceo Celedón and the Industrial Technical Institute, declared national monuments in 1993.

Santa Marta has residential neighborhoods in areas not specifically located, mainly on either side of the avenue that leads to the Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, and other nuclei.

Various sculptural works show the autochthonous culture and those dedicated to national heroes are also places of tourist attraction. Among these, the Rodrigo de Bastidas statue stands out in the ridge or promenade located on the beach of the bay of Santa Marta, the Tribute to the Tayrona Ethnic Group located in a small roundabout in the first race with 22nd street.

Gastronomy

The gastronomy of Santa Marta has been created around factors such as its location on the Caribbean Sea, the variety of climates of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the cultural mix of Europeans and indigenous people. Fish and shellfish are common. For example, in Taganga, a small fishing village, you can find several restaurants that offer dishes based on seafood.

Given these conditions, the food that a foreigner could find would be dishes based on seafood, coconut rice, cocadas or meat from the cattle-raising municipalities of Magdalena. In addition, the daily food of samarium is based on preparations made with guineo verde (unripe banana) whether it is cooked to make cayeye, or fried in slices and any of its variants; cassava cooked with cheese and butter or prepared in buns; rice and fish soups; or as in the rest of the country, cornmeal is used to make arepas, empanadas and buns (wrapped).

Sports

Statue of the Pibe Valderrama at the Eduardo Santos Stadium.

Estadio Sierra Nevada

Olympic pool used in 2017 for the XVIII Bolivarian Games. It is now used for swimming practice.

The predominant sport is soccer. The local team is Unión Magdalena, nicknamed El Ciclón Bananero. Founded in 1951, it was the first team on the Caribbean Coast to win the Colombian professional soccer tournament in 1968 and the first to go to the Copa Libertadores de América in 1969. It currently plays in the First Category A. It played in the Eduardo Santos Stadium until it closed in 2013. On November 11, 2017, the new stadium, Sierra Nevada Stadium, was inaugurated. 2018, Unión Magdalena plays at home in Sierra Nevada. In 2018, the Samario team was runner-up in the Primera B promotion championship. For this reason, in 2019 they will play the Primera A Category tournament.

Its first relegation occurred in 1999, it was promoted again thanks to the promotion triangular in 2001, for the 2005 season it lost the category again and has played since then in the Primera B tournament. or disappearance due to financial problems that afflict it since it does not have investors to support it. Santa Marta is also the hometown of soccer players Carlos Valderrama, Anthony de Ávila and Radamel Falcao García.

In other sports, the Gremio Samario futsal team stands out at a professional level, which plays in the Argos League of the specialty.

Predecessor: Trujillo	Bolivarian Republic 2017	Successor: Valledupar

Sister cities

Town twinning is a concept whereby towns or cities from different geographic and political zones are paired up to foster human contact and cultural links. Santa Marta received a city twinning agreement with Miami Beach (United States) and another with Bucaramanga in 2010.

Miami Beach, United States.
Bucaramanga, Colombia.

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