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Bucaramanga is the capital city of the department of Santander, Colombia. Bucaramanga has the fifth largest economy in Colombia, and has the sixth largest population in the country, with 1,212,656 people in its metropolitan area. Bucaramanga has over 160 parks scattered throughout the city and has been given the nickname "La Ciudad de Los Parques" ("The City of Parks") and "La Ciudad Bonita de Colombia" ("Colombia's Beautiful City").

Bucaramanga has grown rapidly since the 1960s, mostly into neighboring locations within the metropolitan area. Floridablanca, Girón and Piedecuesta are inextricably linked geographically and commercially with Bucaramanga, forming a large metropolitan area.

The city is the base of the Colombian Petroleum Institute (ICP), the research branch of the state oil company Ecopetrol and the Colombian Natural Gas Company (Ecogas).


History

Girón was the first and most significant town founded by Spanish colonizers in the region, and Bucaramanga (founded on December 22, 1622) did not overtake Girón in population or economic significance until the early 19th century. In the 1860s and 1870s the city attracted a core of German merchants and adventurers (the most famous of whom was Geo von Lengerke and tensions between the newcomers and local merchants flared in 1879 when the event named "La Culebra Pico de Oro" (The snake of gold beak)occurred. With the political reorganization of 1886 Bucaramanga replaced Socorro as departmental capital. The region (although not the city itself) was devastated by the civil war of 1899-1902 - commonly known as the Thousand Days War causing Bucaramanga to grow modestly in the first half of the 20th century.