Valencia

About Valencia

Valencia is Venezuela's third-largest city and its great industrial engine, set in a fertile valley between the coastal range and the shores of Lake Valencia. Founded in the sixteenth century, it grew into a prosperous colonial town and played a starring role in the country's birth: the decisive Battle of Carabobo was fought on the plains just to the southwest in 1821, and in 1830 a congress meeting here declared Venezuela's separation from Gran Colombia.

The colonial core around Plaza Bolívar keeps the cathedral that houses the city's beloved Virgen del Socorro, the house of independence hero José Antonio Páez with its battle murals, and an elegant nineteenth-century municipal theatre. Elsewhere, broad avenues, shopping centres and the huge Plaza de Toros Monumental reflect the modern city.

Green space is close at hand in Parque Negra Hipólita, while the hills to the north hold the petroglyphs of Piedra Pintada. The Carabobo battlefield, with its triumphal arch and honour guard, is the classic half-day trip, and the beaches of the Caribbean coast are about an hour away.