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Maracay is the capital of Aragua State in north-central Venezuela, set at the foot of the coastal mountains about 119 kilometers west of Caracas, with close to a million people in its metropolitan area. Established as a parish in 1701, it is known as the Garden City, a name linked to Alexander von Humboldt, who stayed here in 1800, and as the cradle of Venezuelan aviation.
The city grew under the dictator Juan Vicente Gómez, who ruled the country from Maracay between 1908 and 1935. He gave it a monumental center by architects such as Carlos Raúl Villanueva, with the vast Plaza Bolívar, the Hotel Jardín, a bullring modeled on Seville's and an opera house, and he is buried in a mausoleum in the city.
Visitors explore these Gómez-era landmarks, the cathedral, and the aviation and anthropology museums, then cross the cloud forests of Henri Pittier National Park, the oldest national park in Venezuela, on winding roads down to the colonial village of Choroní and the palm-lined beach of Cata Bay.
Plaza Bolívar de Maracay was designed by Carlos Raúl Villanueva on the grounds of the old Las Glorietas hacienda and opened on 19 December 1930, the centenary of Bolívar's death. At the time it was considered the largest square in South America, and it anchors the city's civic and military complex.
The Antiguo Hotel Jardín stands on the south side of Plaza Bolívar in Maracay. Designed by Carlos Raúl Villanueva and opened in 1930 with one hundred rooms, it was the jewel of hotels built under Juan Vicente Gómez, later housed the state government and became a National Historic Monument in 1994.
The Teatro de la Ópera de Maracay was begun in May 1935 on the orders of Juan Vicente Gómez to designs by the architect Luis Malaussena, beside Plaza Bolívar. Work stopped when Gómez died that December and resumed only in 1971. The hall seats 837 and became a National Historic Monument in 1994.
The Maestranza César Girón in Maracay is a bullring by Carlos Raúl Villanueva inspired by the Real Maestranza of Seville. Opened on 20 January 1933 under Juan Vicente Gómez, it holds about 7,000 people, is named for the bullfighter César Girón and is the venue of the corridas of the San José fair.
Maracay Cathedral, dedicated to Saint Joseph, stands between Bolívar and Miranda avenues and unlike most Venezuelan cathedrals faces Plaza Girardot rather than Plaza Bolívar. It began as the church of Maracay in the late 17th century, had its first parish priest in 1701 and was reshaped many times.
The Aeronautical Museum of Maracay, named for Colonel Luis Hernán Paredes, is Venezuela's only aviation museum. Created in 1963 in the first hangar of the country's military and civil aviation, on the old Florencio Gómez national airport, it shows old aircraft in the cradle of Venezuelan flying.
The Museum of Anthropology and History of Aragua in central Maracay occupies a building of 1930 made for two state banks and opened as a museum on 1 April 1965. It shows pre-Columbian and Latin American art and culture; its star piece is the Venus of Tacarigua, a pre-Columbian Venezuelan figurine.
The Mausoleum of Juan Vicente Gómez is a funerary monument on Calle Mariño beside La Primavera cemetery in Maracay, designed by Antonio Malaussena and built by Emilio Lachalle in 1919. The dictator, who ruled Venezuela from the city, was buried here after he died in 1935 with members of his family.
Henri Pittier National Park rises north of Maracay and is the oldest national park in Venezuela, created in 1937 as Rancho Grande and renamed in 1953 for the Swiss botanist Henri Pittier. Its 107,800 hectares of cloud forest and coast are home to more than 500 bird species, with bays and beaches.
The Rancho Grande Biological Station lies at kilometer 24 of the road from Maracay to Ocumare de la Costa, in the heart of Henri Pittier National Park. Its sickle-shaped building was begun as an art deco hotel for Juan Vicente Gómez and left unfinished at his death; it now serves forest research.
Choroní, reached from Maracay on a winding road through Henri Pittier National Park, was founded in 1616 and keeps its colonial architecture amid cacao and fishing. At Puerto Colombia on the coast, the seafront malecón is the hub of the village, and boats leave for Chuao and other roadless villages.
Cata Bay is a wide, crescent-shaped beach on the Aragua coast about 58 kilometers from Maracay by the road through El Limón. With very fine sand, clear water and the shade of tall coconut palms, it has become a busy seaside resort with cabins and restaurants by the sand.
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