Ibagué

History

Ibagué was founded by Andrés López de Galarza on 14 October 1550, as "Villa de San Bonifacio de Ibagué del Valle de las Lanzas" ("Town of Saint Boniface of Ibagué of the Valley of the Spears") in a nearby location where now lies the urban area of the neighboring municipality of Cajamarca about 42 km to the west of Ibagué's current whereabouts. The indigenous Pijaos commanded by cacique Ibagué were not fond of Spaniards colonizing the area so the city was re-founded in its current location on 7 February 1551.

From April to December 1854, Ibagué was briefly the capital of the New Granada following a coup d'etat promoted by general José María Melo. In 1908, when the department of Tolima was created, Ibagué was designated as its capital. The University of Tolima was founded in 1945, and was raised to state university status in 1954. The city is also the home of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ibagué.

Geography

Ibagué is located in the Colombian Andean region, in the center of the department of Tolima, surrounded by mountains on all sides with the exception of a plateau which extends to the east.

Volcanism

Ibagué lies within the Andean Volcanic Belt. It has two active volcanoes in its immediate vicinity: the Nevado del Tolima, 28 km NW of the city, and the Cerro Machín, 17 km west of the city center but still within the Municipality of Ibagué. The city is one access point to Los Nevados National Park, the other being Manizales.

Cerro Machín has been dormant for the last 800 years, but seismological activity has been registered recently causing several earthquakes, and in 2007 a 400 meters steam column from the crater. The volcano is classified as "III – Changes in behavior of volcanic activity" by Ingeominas, the Colombian Institute for Geology and Mining. A map of menaced areas has been published indicating that in the event of an eruption the city of Ibagué would not be affected despite its proximity to the volcano.

Demographics

The total population of the municipality of Ibagué (including urban and rural areas), according to the 2025 census, was 544,132 inhabitants, of which approximately 500 thousand people resided in the urban area.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Municipal transport is managed by several local bus companies that operate minibuses throughout the city and to neighboring villages.

Ibagué lies at the intersection of national roads 40 and 43, connecting the city to Magdalena River Valley and Bogotá to the east, Armenia and the Valle del Cauca to the west, and Honda to the north. There is a long distance bus terminal with connections to most big cities in Colombia. There are frequent connections to Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, and several overnight buses to Cartagena, Barranquilla, and seasonal services to Santa Marta.

About 10 km east of the city lies Perales Airport which has several flights a day to Bogotá and Medellín.

Climate

Ibagué features a tropical rainforest climate under the Köppen climate classification, albeit a relatively cooler version of the climate due to the high altitude. Although the city does experience noticeably drier conditions during and around the months of January and July, the city has no true dry season month, as all twelve months see on average more than 60 mm of rain. As is commonplace in areas with this climate, temperatures are relatively consistent throughout the course of the year in Ibagué, with average high temperatures of about 28 C and average low temperatures of about 18 C. On average Ibagué sees 1700 mm of rain annually.

|access-date= 25 June 2024

|Jan record high C = 34.4 |Feb record high C = 35.4 |Mar record high C = 34.4 |Apr record high C = 34.2 |May record high C = 35.9 |Jun record high C = 33.6 |Jul record high C = 35.0 |Aug record high C = 36.4 |Sep record high C = 36.0 |Oct record high C = 34.8 |Nov record high C = 31.9 |Dec record high C = 34.2 |year record high C = 36.4 |Jan record low C = 15.3 |Feb record low C = 15.2 |Mar record low C = 14.8 |Apr record low C = 15.6 |May record low C = 16.2 |Jun record low C = 15.2 |Jul record low C = 15.2 |Aug record low C = 10.6 |Sep record low C = 14.4 |Oct record low C = 16.0 |Nov record low C = 15.2 |Dec record low C = 15.4 |year record low C = 10.6 |access-date=25 June 2024 |archive-date=6 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240606062955/http://www.ideam.gov.co/documents/21021/553571/Normales+Climatol%C3%B3gicas+Est%C3%A1ndar_Periodo+1991-2020.xlsx/347421fe-b205-478f-9c24-55d0ea3785cd |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160815025712/http://www.ideam.gov.co/documents/21021/553571/Promedios%20Climatol%C3%B3gicos%20%201981%20-%202010.xlsx/f28d0b07-1208-4a46-8ccf-bddd70fb4128 |archive-date=15 August 2016 |access-date=16 August 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160815030409/http://www.ideam.gov.co/documents/21021/553571/Promedios%2BClimatol%C3%B3gicos%2B%2B1971%2B-%2B2000.xlsx/7358269a-2856-442c-8d41-fe076f0361af |archive-date=15 August 2016 |access-date=16 August 2016 |url-status=dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160815030620/http://www.ideam.gov.co/web/tiempo-y-clima/clima | archive-date = 15 August 2016 | access-date = 16 August 2016}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160815025712/http://www.ideam.gov.co/documents/21021/553571/Promedios%2BClimatol%C3%B3gicos%2B%2B1981%2B-%2B2010.xlsx/f28d0b07-1208-4a46-8ccf-bddd70fb4128 |archive-date=15 August 2016 |access-date= 25 June 2024 |url-status=dead}}

Neighborhoods

• Picaleña
• Combeima
• Ricaurte
• Kenedy
• Jordan (I-IX etapa)
• Sta Helena
• Belen
• Pueblo Nuevo
• Galan
• Sta Rita
• Venecia
• Ambala
• Pedregal
• Vergel
• Martires
• Estadio
• La Francia
• San Francisco
• Claret
• Hipodromo
• Las Ferias

Notable people

• Leonor Buenaventura de Valencia, songwriter and poet
• Patricia Caicedo, soprano
• James Cañón, novelist
• Óscar Escandón, boxer
• Estefanía Gómez, actress
• Andres Marin, competitive ice climber
• Darío Ortiz Robledo, artist
• James Rodríguez, footballer
• Gloria Valencia de Castaño, journalist

Sports

The Colombian Football Association announced that Ibagué will be one of the venue cities to host the 2016 FIFA Futsal World Cup, although in the end it was not designated as the venue for the sporting event.

Ibague has one professional soccer team Deportes Tolima three times Liga BetPlay winner in 2003, 2018 and 2021. Club Deportes Tolima was founded on 18 December 1954, under the leadership of Manuel Rubio Sánchez, who was in charge of registering the team with Dimayor for the sum of 10,000 pesos. In 1957, one of the most important men in the history of Deportes Tolima, Jorge Guzmán Molina, arrived, achieving the first sub-championship of the team.

Twin towns – sister cities

Ibagué is twinned with:

• CHN Chengdu, China
• ESP Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

References

References

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2. "Información capital".
3. "What are the departments of Colombia".
4. (July 2018). "mapa de comunas de ibague".
5. (2010). "world trade center Colombia".
6. El tiempo. (2010). "ibague, ciudad de la confeccion".
7. ibague es la segunda ciudad negociante del país. (2010). "ibague seuna ciudad finanicera y de negocios del pais/web2/joomla/documentos/mapa_comunas.pdf".
8. conservatorio de ibague. (2010). "conservatorio de ibague".
9. conservatorio del tolima. (2010). "conservatorio del tolima".
10. reinado nacional del folclor. (2010). "reinado nacional del folclor".
11. (1 August 2009). "Ingeominas". Ingeominas.
12. (9 December 2008). "Mapa de amenaza del Cerro Machín". Ingeominas.
13. [http://www.elespectador.com/entretenimiento/arteygente/articulo-dario-ortiz-abrio-su-ventana-al-mundo "Darío Ortiz abrió su 'Ventana al Mundo'"] {{Webarchive. link. (14 June 2018 , ''[[El Espectador]]'', 29 September 2008 {{in lang). es.
14. (28 May 2013). "Copa Mundial de Futsal de la FIFA se jugará en Colombia en 2016". fcf.com.co/.
15. (29 January 2016). "Cali, Medellín y Bucaramanga, sedes del Mundial de Futsal".
16. (18 August 2020). "Historia – Club Deportes Tolima".
17. "Menu: International cooperation". Ibagué Creativa.