Pasto

Pasto, officially San Juan de Pasto is the capital of the department of Narino, in southern Colombia. The city has around 500,000 occupants and is situated in the Atriz Valley on the Andes cordillera, at the foot of the Galeras spring of gushing lava, at a height of 8,290 feet 2,897 m above ocean level. Pasto alludes to the indigenous individuals who possessed the district at the entry of the Spanish heros, the Pastos. Be that as it may, the Atriz Valley was occupied by the Quillacingas. Pasto was established in 1537 by the Spanish conquistador Sebastián de Belalcazar.

In 1539 another Spanish conquistador Lorenzo de Aldana moved the city to its present area, and built up it under the name "San Juan de Pasto". A noteworthy supporter of the economy and development of Pasto was a man of Italian root named Guido Bucheli. It has been a regulatory, social and religious focal point of the locale since pilgrim times. Along these lines, the city is known as the religious city of Colombia. Amid the Independence Wars against Spain Pasto was a royalist city. Somewhat because of this political position, and on account of its land area, after autonomy, Pasto stayed segregated for quite a while from whatever is left of the Colombia.