Coro, Venezuela

Coro is the capital of Falcón State and the second oldest city in Venezuela (after Cumaná). It was founded on July 26, 1527, by Juan de Ampíes as Santa Ana de Coro. It was historically known as Neu-Augsburg (from 1528 to 1546) by the German Welsers, and Coro by the Spanish colonizers and Venezuelans, the city and buildings were built during the Spanish Empire. It is established at the south of the Paraguaná Peninsula in a coastal plain, flanked by the Médanos de Coro National Park to the north and the Sierra de Coro to the south, at a few kilometers from its port (La Vela de Coro) in the Caribbean Sea at a point equidistant between the Ensenada de La Vela and Golfete de Coro.

It has a wide cultural tradition that comes from being the urban settlement founded by the Spanish conquerors who colonized the interior of the continent. As Neu-Augsburg, it was the first German colony in the Americas under the Welser family of Augsburg (from 1528 to 1546). It was then the first capital of the Spanish Captaincy General of Venezuela (1546–1578) and head of the first bishop founded in South America in 1531. The precursor movement of the independence and of vindication of the dominated classes in Venezuela originated in this region; it is also considered to be the cradle of the Venezuelan federalist movement in the republican era.

Thanks to the city's history, culture and its well-preserved Colonial architecture, "Coro and its port La Vela" was designated in 1993 as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Since 2005 it is on the UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger.

Toponymy

At its founding the town was called Santa Ana de Coro (there is now an unsuccessful campaign to reinstate the colonial name of the city) in the Spanish style that named new cities in America according to the Catholic calendar, accompanied by a name of Indian origin.