Pitalito
Colombian municipality of the department of Huila
Pitalito is a Colombian town and municipality located in southern Department of Huila, Colombia near the Magdalena River Valley, 188 km from Huila's capital, Neiva. It is located in "The Valley of Laboyos" and is the second most populated municipality in the Department of Huila, with a population of 128,630. Pitalito is considered the largest producer of coffee in Colombia. Being at the epicenter of the coffee producing District of Bruselas, the town has become a notable coffee-growing area within Colombia. On several occasions, it has been awarded with the "Cup of Excellence", for producing the best coffee in the country.
The boundaries are Timaná, Elias and Saladoblanco to the North, Palestina to the south, Isnos and San Agustín to the west, and Acevedo to the east.
History
On December 18, 1538, Spanish captain Pedro de Añasco founded a village in the Laboyos Valley, which was initially called Guacacallo, due to its location on a terrace of the Cálamo River. This village played an important role in connecting travelers and merchandise between Quito and Popayán with Bogotá. However, due to constant attacks from local indigenous tribes and from other nearby regions such as the Andaquíes, and also due to an event related to the Cacica Gaitana, the village was moved to the north, near the bank of the Timaná River, where the town of the same name is located today.
This village was the first Spanish foundation in the south of the Alto Magdalena, and its territory corresponded to this geographical area.
“Pitalito” enters the record as colombian municipality of the department of Huila. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pitalito, Colombian and municipality can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1014922. VIAF identifies the subject as 130357930. The Library of Congress control number is n97063950. Authority coordinates are 1.854, -76.051. 5 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1538.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pitalito” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.