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The history of Ituango begins with the first Spanish conquerors who arrived to the place, first Francisco César in 1537, and then Juan de Badillo in 1538 (Columbus arrived in America in 1492). Both left from their headquarters in San Sebastián de Urabá (near the current municipality of Necoclí); each one went up the Sinú River until its source, and both, each one in turn, then entered the Ituango region.

The indigenous inhabitants of the Ituango region of the Catía and Nutabe ethnic groups began to be appeased and Christianized from 1566,

Shortly after, Don Gaspar de Rodas and Don Andrés de Valdivia, who wrote the true and bloody history of this region, would arrive in Ituango.

In 1568, the Spanish authority ordered Don Gaspar de Rodas to found a new city where he saw fit in order to subdue and reduce the most bellicose tribes in that area of ​​Antioquia that were resisting the conquest.

Almost simultaneously, in 1569, Don Andrés de Valdivia is appointed by the King of Spain as governor and captain general of the provinces of Antioquia, Ituango, Nive and Brenduco.

Fulfilling his orders, Don Gaspar de Rodas, located in Santa Fe de Antioquia, published an invitation for the foundation of ´´San Juan de Rodas´´, which was attended by adventurers from all neighboring colonies and also good men.

Don Gaspar de Rodas gathered about 80 men-at-arms and 500 Indians. He first visited the Norisco Valley (near the current municipality of Frontino); The Indians of this region, to get rid of the uncomfortable visitors, told the founding expedition that the riches were found further afield, in the lands of Ituango. Don Gaspar de Rodas found only jobs on this route, although he managed to subdue many tribes and discover large populations on the banks of the Zenú River (today Sinú), and due to many fights with the natives, and although he tried, he failed to stabilize the foundation of ´´San Juan de Rodas´´, a town that would be called this way in memory of his own surname. Don Gaspar began to build the town that would perpetuate his name on two occasions, but the Catios devastated the incipient towns on both occasions.

In the end, the name of ´´San Juan de Rodas´´ was nothing but that: the name, and the illusion of the conqueror of having founded the town.

Meanwhile Don Andrés de Valdivia had arrived from Spain through Cartagena, with high royal positions including that of governor. He declared himself governor of the province of the two rivers and he did succeed in the founding of the new entrusted city, (where today is the Valley of Toledo). There he founded Úbeda in honor of the town where he was born in Spain). To keep it running, reinforcements arrived from Santa Fe de Antioquia.

But in this endeavor the Spaniards harshly mistreated the indigenous people, who concentrated and planned in retaliation a deadly ambush against the Iberians in what we now know as the massacre (near the Toledo Valley). There, on October 15, 1574, Governor Valdivia and his companions perished at the hands of the Guarcama cacique and his Nutabe warriors. Valdivia was killed with a blow with a heavy mace that shattered his skull, along with the Indian woman who served as his interpreter. The few of his troops who managed to flee returned to Santa Fe de Antioquia and placed themselves under the protection of Don Gaspar de Rodas.

Don Gaspar de Rodas returned to the Guarcama Valley where, feigning friendship with the natives, he later punished them severely, including Cacique Guarcama, whom he had killed as a lesson for the death of Valdivia and his men.

Don Gaspar de Rodas would later carry out other foundations in Antioquia and die peacefully surrounded by his family, but always with the nostalgia of not having been able to found ´´San Juan de Rodas´´. They say that in his old age he recounted his adventures and hardships in the lands of Ituango, and that he spoke about mountains that he considered the most rugged known to him, and about the indigenous Tuangos, the bravest warriors that existed during the Spanish conquest.

In 1844, the official date of the foundation at the hands of the Antioquia governor José María Martínez Pardo, the town appears with the name of Aguada being a hamlet, township and vice-parish of the Sabanalarga district.

In 1847 Ituango was constituted as a parochial district and erected as a municipality with the current name, coming from indigenous words whose meaning in Spanish is ´´Río de Chicha´´.

It is settled in the middle of the mountain range and crossed by the Cauca River, and is a green municipality, one of the most mountainous in Antioquia and with large areas of natural reserve. It has a great commercial activity and due to the presence of indigenous Catíos and the characteristics of its settlement, it is common to find a rich cultural diversity in it. Its natural areas are abundant in fauna and flora such as orchids.

The national government, as a result of the multiple forced displacements, the increase in coca cultivation, and as a result of car bombs installed on the road, included the municipality among the list of towns classified as an ´´zone of extreme risk´´.

Despite all this, an ambitious energy production project is currently being developed, which will be Pescadero-Ituango.





Ituango is a municipality of Colombia, located in the North subregion of the department of Antioquia. It limits to the north with the municipality of Tarazá and the department of Córdoba, to the east with the municipalities of Valdivia and Briceño, to the south with Briceño, Toledo and Peque and to the west with the municipalities of Dabeiba and Mutatá. Its head is 195 kilometers from the capital of Antioquia, Medellín.

Appellatives: hidden paradise

Origin of the name: Ituango: indigenous word, Chicha river. Itua: Chicha. Go: by loudness. It was also called Aguada and Fundungo.

Communication channels

It has 2 access roads by uncovered road, both in the middle of a complex mountainous topography, the main one that communicates with San Andrés de Cuerquia and another very little used that communicates with Toledo.

Economy

Agriculture: Coffee, Corn, Sugar Cane, Beans

Livestock: Fattening and Milk Vaccine, Sheep and Swine

Mining: Gold and Platinum

Wood industry

Ecotourism.

The Pescadero-Ituango Hydroelectric Plant, once completed, will be a fundamental part of the economy with the production of energy not only to supply Colombia, but also to sell to other countries.





Parties

Ituanguinidad Fair from August 11 to 18

Agricultural Fair, in the month of December

Holy Week

Festivities of the Virgen del Carmen, in the month of July

Gastronomy

Typical here is a Gallina dish with Chócolo balls, or a Creole chicken sancocho that is accompanied with sweet corn balls. There is also typical traditional paisa cuisine, and roasts.

Sites of Interest and historical heritage

Urban helmet; Its construction on mountains is an example of the architecture of the Colony

Principal Park

La Plazuela Park

Church of Santa Barbara

Ecological destinations

Paramillo National Park, although it is rarely visited.

Cauca river canyon

Jaidukama indigenous reservation

Loma de Pascuita

Umaga Hill

Jungle holes of the San Jorge, Sinú, Tarazá, Sansereno and San Matías rivers, where the national flower of Colombia, the orchid, abounds.

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