Many aspects of Colombian culture can be traced back to the early culture of Spain of the 16th century and its collision with Colombia's native civilizations. The Spanish brought Catholicism, the feudal encomienda system, and a caste system that favored European descendants.
Luis Ángel Arango Library is a public library located in Bogotá, Colombia. It is one of the largest and most important libraries in the world. It was founded in 1958 as a small library with a few books on economics, currently its collection has about 2'000.000 works. Today the library has been expanded and occupies two entire city blocks spanning about 45,000 m2. Its collection has grown to become the country's premier library and has come to be considered the most important public library in Latin America, and one of the most visited in the world. It has over 1.1 million books and seating for 1900 readers; it received 6.7 million visitors in 2008. The library is named after the lawyer and businessman Luis Angel Arango, the general director (Governor) of the "Banco de la Republica" in Colombia from 1947 to 1957, and a champion of culture and literature for all. The library is part of the cultural affairs wing of Colombian Central Bank, Banrepcultural network, which today runs 23 additional libraries, cultural centers and museums across Colombia.
The carnival in Colombia was introduced by the Spaniards. The Colombian carnival has incorporated elements from European culture, and has managed to syncretise, or re-interpret, traditions that belonged to the African and Amerindian cultures of Colombia. There is documentary evidence that the carnival existed in Colombia in the 17th century and had already caused concern to the colonial authorities, who censored the celebrations, especially in the main centers of power such as Cartagena, Bogotá and Popayán. The carnival, therefore, continued its evolution and re-interpretation in the small and at that time unimportant towns where celebrations did not offend the ruling elites. The result was the uninterrupted celebration of carnival festivals in Barranquilla, and other villages along the lower Magdalena River in northern Colombia, and in Pasto, Nariño in the south of the country. In modern times, there have been attempts to introduce the carnival in the capital, Bogotá, in the early 20th century, but it has always failed to gain the approval of authorities. The Bogotá Carnival has had to wait until the 21st century to be resurrected, this time, by the authorities of the city. Colombia is recognized by its large variety of festivals, carnivals and fairs. Most towns have their own, ranging from those celebrating coffee to the ones held in honor of the town's Saint feast. The common characteristics of the festivals are the nomination of a beauty Queen and the setting up of public dance floor.
Caracol Radio is one of the main radio networks in Colombia. Founded in Medellín in 1948 when La Voz de Antioquia station acquired the 50% of Emisoras Nuevo Mundo, based in Bogotá.
La Candelaria is the 17th locality of Bogotá, Colombia. It is a historic neighborhood located in the city's downtown area, similar to the Old City in other cities. The architecture in La Candelaria features Spanish Colonial Baroque, and art deco styles. The locality is home to several universities, libraries, and museums.
Santiago Martínez Delgado (1906–1954) was a Colombian painter, sculptor, art historian and writer. He established a reputation as a prominent muralist during the 1940s and is also known for his watercolors, oil paintings, illustrations and woodcarvings.
Firavitoba is a town and municipality in Sugamuxi Province, a subregion of the department of Boyacá in Colombia.
The National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) does not collect religious statistics, and accurate reports are difficult to obtain. However, based on various studies and a survey, about 90% of the population adheres to Christianity, the majority of which (70.9%) are Roman Catholic, while a significant minority (16.7%) adhere to Protestantism and other Christian groups.
The contribution of travel and tourism to GDP was US$5,880.3bn in 2016. Tourism generated 556,135 jobs in 2016. Foreign tourist visits were predicted to have risen from 0.6 million in 2007 to 4 million in 2017. Responsible tourism became a peremptory need for Colombia because it minimizes negative social, economic and environmental impacts and makes positive contributions to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage.
Access to the Internet in Colombia shows a marked increase during the last few years. As of September 2009, the web connections surpassed two million, as compared with an estimated total of 900,000 Internet subscribers by the end of 2005. The current figure equated to 17 million Internet users, plus 3.8 million mobile internet users, or 38.5 percent of the 2009 population, as compared with 4,739,000 Internet users in 2005, or 11.5 percent of the 2005 population. Colombia had 581,877 Internet hosts in 2006. This represents an overall growth of 54 percent each year, the highest in Latin America. Although as many as 70 percent of Colombians accessed the Internet over their ordinary telephone lines, dial-up access is losing ground to broadband. In 2005 Colombia had 345,000 broadband subscriber lines, or one per 100 inhabitants. In 2006 the number of personal computers per 1,000 people increased to an estimated 87 per 1,000 inhabitants, a rate still below that in other large Latin American economies. As of 2009, Colombia duplicated the number of personal computers reaching 26.3 percent, as compared with the rest of Latin America which showed a decreasing trend.
The districtsof Colombia are cities that have a feature that highlights them, such as its location and trade, history or tourism. Arguably, the districts are special municipalities.
The Episcopal Conference of Colombia is an administrative institution and permanence of the Catholic Church, composed of all the bishops of the dioceses of Colombia in a college, in communion with the Roman Pontiff and under his authority to exercise set of certain pastoral functions of the episcopate on the faithful of their territory under the rule of law and statutes, in order to promote the life of the Church, to strengthen its mission of evangelization and respond more effectively to the greater good that the Church should seek to men.
Miguel Triana Ruiz de Cote was a Colombian engineer and Muisca scholar. He is best known for his 1922 publication La Civilización Chibcha; "The Muisca civilisation". Triana wrote a number of books about the Muisca and their culture. Miguel Triana especially contributed to the knowledge of the religion, society and the creation of rock art throughout the Muisca Confederation. Triana was the first Colombian investigator relating the Muisca culture with the pictographs. He described hundreds of rock paintings and carvings in his book El jeroglífico Chibcha.
The Casa del Fundador Gonzalo Suárez Rendón is a museum and monument in Tunja, the capital of Boyacá, Colombia. It is situated on the central square of Tunja, named Plaza Bolívar, but historically called Plaza Suárez Rendón, honouring the city founder Gonzalo Suárez Rendón, who established Tunja for the Spanish Crown on August 6, 1539. The colonial building, declared a monument in 1959 and designated as museum in 1965, is the only remaining house of a city founder in Latin America and started construction in 1540.
The 2018 Copa Colombia, officially the 2018 Copa Águila for sponsorship reasons, was the 16th edition of the Copa Colombia, the national cup competition for clubs of DIMAYOR. The tournament was contested by 36 teams. Junior were the defending champions, but were knocked out by Atlético Nacional in the quarterfinals. Atlético Nacional were the champions after beating Once Caldas 4–3 on aggregate in the final, and qualified for the 2019 Copa Libertadores.
The 2020 Copa Colombia, officially the 2020 Copa BetPlay Dimayor for sponsorship reasons, was the 18th edition of the Copa Colombia, the national cup competition for clubs of DIMAYOR. The tournament was contested by 36 teams and began on 19 February 2020. It concluded on 11 February 2021, with the champions qualifying for the 2022 Copa Sudamericana. Independiente Medellín were the defending champions and successfully defended their title by beating Deportes Tolima 5–4 on penalties in the final after tying 1–1 over 90 minutes.
