Medellín

Medellín is the second-largest city in Colombia after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central region of the Andes Mountains, in northwestern South America. According to the National Administrative Department of Statistics, the city had an estimated population of 2,508,452 according to the 2018 census. With its surrounding areas, encompassing nine other cities, the metro area of Medellín is the second-largest urban agglomeration in Colombia, with more than 4 million people.

In 1616, the Spaniard Francisco de Herrera Campuzano erected a small indigenous village known as "Saint Lawrence of Aburrá", located in the present-day El Poblado commune. On 2 November 1675, the queen consort Mariana of Austria founded the "Town of Our Lady of Candelaria of Medellín" in the Aná region, which today corresponds to the center of the city and first describes the region as "Medellín".