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Pasto, officially San Juan de Pasto, is the capital of Nariño Department in southern Colombia, lying at about 2,500 meters in the Atriz Valley of the Andes at the foot of the Galeras volcano. Founded in 1537 and moved to its present site in 1539, it is one of the oldest cities in the country and the main city of the Andean south near Ecuador.
A royalist stronghold during the independence wars, Pasto kept a deeply religious and traditional character, seen in the many churches of its center, from the colonial San Juan Bautista to the Gothic and Romanesque cathedral. Its crafts include the unique barniz de Pasto, and every year from late December to 7 January the city fills with the floats and painted faces of the Carnaval de Negros y Blancos.
The surroundings are cool highland country of patchwork fields and volcanoes. Laguna de la Cocha and its island sanctuary lie about 20 kilometers away, and the Santuario de Las Lajas near Ipiales is a popular day trip toward the Ecuadorian border.
The Cathedral of Pasto, also called the Temple of the Sacred Heart, stands two blocks from the Plaza de Nariño in the historic center of Pasto. Begun in 1899 on the site of a Franciscan chapel and opened in 1920, it mixes Gothic and Romanesque styles, and its towers rise 49 meters.
The Church of San Juan Bautista on the Plaza de Nariño stands on the oldest church site in Pasto and was the city's first cathedral. Rebuilt in 1667, it has a carved Baroque side portal and pulpit, and it holds the remains of Agustín Agualongo, the local leader of the royalist resistance.
Plaza de Nariño is the central square of Pasto, once the Plaza de la Constitución, where the main streets begin and the city's great religious and civic festivities have long been held. It is flanked by the Church of San Juan Bautista and the Nariño government, and its Nariño statue fell in 2021.
The Pasaje del Corazón de Jesús is a Republican-style building beside the Church of San Juan Bautista, facing the Plaza de Nariño in Pasto, built between 1925 and 1934. A brick arch over its pedestrian lane and a balconied facade make it a city landmark, now home to shops and a hotel.
The Museo del Oro Nariño, run by the Banco de la República in Pasto, opened in 1984 and reopened in December 2016 with a fresh look at the pre-Hispanic societies of the region. Its 432 pieces of gold, pottery, stone, shell, wood and textiles come from the Tuza and Capulí cultures.
The Museo Taminango of popular arts and traditions occupies a colonial house in Pasto dating to 1623, a national monument since 1971, and opened in 1989. It shows the region's traditional crafts and the Greek-type press of the scholar Leopoldo López Álvarez, with a botanical garden next door.
The Carnaval de Negros y Blancos is the great festival of Pasto, held from 28 December to 7 January and listed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009. On the Day of the Blacks and the Day of the Whites people paint each other, and huge handmade floats parade through the streets.
Barniz de Pasto is a craft of pre-Hispanic origin found only in Pasto, in which artisans stretch thin films of colored resin from the mopa-mopa shrub over carved wooden objects. Recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage, it decorates boxes, plates and bowls sold around the city.
Galeras is the volcano rising to 4,276 meters just 9 kilometers from Pasto, considered the most active in Colombia. The Quillacinga people called it Urcunina, the mountain of fire, and Spanish conquerors named it for a summit outline like an oared galley. Explosive eruptions struck in 2006 and 2008.
Laguna de la Cocha, also called Lake Guamuez, is a large glacial lake about 20 kilometers from Pasto at 2,680 meters, the second largest natural lake in Colombia. Covering over 40 square kilometers and 25 kilometers long, it became the first Ramsar wetland in the Colombian Andes in 2000.
The Isla de la Corota Flora Sanctuary protects a small forested island in Laguna de la Cocha near Pasto, the smallest protected area in Colombia's national parks system. Its 12 hectares of cold, humid forest are reached by boat, and the Quillacinga people regard the island as sacred.
The Santuario de Las Lajas is a neo-Gothic basilica built over the canyon of the Guáitara River near Ipiales, a day trip about 80 kilometers south of Pasto. Built from 1916 to 1949 on a bridge 50 meters high, it rises 100 meters from its base and has drawn pilgrims since the 18th century.
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