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Cumaná è una città del Venezuela di 423.546 abitanti, capitale dello Stato di Sucre, che si affaccia sul golfo di Cariaco.
Storia
Fu sede della prima missione stabilita in America, tuttavia, questa fallì dando inizio alla conquista armata che ne fece la prima città europea in terra sudamericana ad essere fondata, chiamata "La Primogenita" nel 1520[1]. La città fu fondata da Giacomo Castiglione nel 1523 con il nome originario de "la gloriosa Santa Inés de Nueva Córdoba"[2][3][4][5][6][7]. Fin dal XVI secolo, si impose come un fiorente centro di scambi commerciali disponendo inoltre di numerose fabbriche di cotone.
Dal punto di vista geologico e geografico il Venezuela è situato al confine di due placche tettoniche, quella caraibica e quella sudamericana, in aggiunta, è attraversato da tre grandi sistemi di faglie geologiche: la faglia di Boconó, quella di El Pilar e quella di San Sebastian[8]. Il primo importante terremoto segnalato dopo l'insediamento delle coste caraibiche fu quello che nel 1530 distrusse la fortezza di Cumaná, all'epoca nota come Nueva Toledo, e colpì inoltre la città di Nuova Cadice sull'isola di Cubagua[8][9]. Altri eventi catastrofici incomberono su Cumaná nel corso degli anni successivi, fra questi, il terremoto del 1629 che causò la morte di circa trecento persone radendo al suolo la chiesa e altri edifici religiosi e quello del 1794[8].
Monumenti e luoghi d'interesse
Architetture civili
Presenta sul territorio diverse case coloniali.
Architetture militari
Sorgono nella città il castello cinquecentesco di San Antonio de la Eminencia e il castello de Santa Maria de la Cabeza del XVII secolo.
Architetture religiose
A partire dagli anni sessanta ha avuto un discreto sviluppo il turismo grazie ai suoi edifici religiosi, fra questi la chiesa di santa Inés, il convento di san Francisco.
Cultura
Musei
Tra i musei ospitati dalla città si ricordano il Museo de arte contemporáneo, il Museo de arqueología e historia e il Museo Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho.
Società
Religione
La città è sede arcivescovile.
Infrastrutture e trasporti
Aeroporti
La città è servita da un aeroporto collocato a circa 10 km dal centro cittadino.
Note
- ^ (EN) Tomás Straka, Guillermo Guzmán Mirabal e Alejandro E. Cáceres, Discovery and conquest period, in Historical dictionary of Venezuela, 3ª ed., Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield, 2018, pp. 5-8, ISBN 9781538109496, LCCN 2017033067.
«[...] Soon after Christopher Columbus reached the continental mass of America for the first time in 1498, the first rush to riches took place with the "pearl fever" in Cubagua, the first political territorial unity was created (Gobernación of Coquibacoa, 1502), the first European city in South America was founded (Cumaná, named as La Primogénita, "The Firstbom," in 1520), and the first mission in America was established (in 1513, also in Cumaná), all in Venezuelan territory. [...] For his part, Ojeda obtained from the Spanish Crown the first Spanish gobernación in South America, in current Guajira Peninsula, named Gobernación of Coquibacoa (1502). Nevertheless, the pearl deposits at the island of Cubagua, in eastern Venezuela, were the ones that led to the first European permanent settlement, Nueva Cádiz, founded around 1500. The Crown gave Nueva Cádiz the rank of city in 1528 [...] When the missions failed, the armed conquest started, leading to the foundation of the city of Cumaná. [...]»
- ^ (EN) Leonard Victor Dalton, Venezuela (PDF), New York – Londra, Charles Scribner's Sons – T. Fisher Unwin, 1912, p. 70. URL consultato l'11 novembre 2022.
«A second semi-military expedition from Hispaniola in 1521, under the leadership of Jacome Castellon, built the castle of Araya in spite of the Cubaguans, and founded the city of la gloriosa Santa Ines de Nueva Córdoba, the modern Cumaná. The fortress was reduced to ruins by an earthquake in 1530. In the meantime, orders had been received from Spain to name the already existing city on Cubagua, Nueva Cadiz, and three years later, in 1524, La Asuncion was founded on the island of Margarita, while in 1527 the inhabitants of New Cadiz received the right to elect annually an alcalde, the Emperor giving 500 pesos for rebuilding the church there. Thus we have three cities founded in Venezuela territory within the first twenty-five years of the sixteenth century.»
- ^ (EN) James D. Henderson, Helen Delpar e Maurice Philip Brungardt, A reference guide to Latin American history, a cura di Richard N. Weldon, Armonk, New York – Londra, M. E. Sharpe, 2000, p. 59, ISBN 1-56324-744-5, OCLC 875918219.
«1520 Native Americans and Spanish clashed on the Venezuelan coast. Reacting against Spanish slaving expeditions and forced labor in the pearl fisheries of Cubagua, the native Americans rebelled against the Spanish. The punitive expedition of Jácome Castellón followed in retaliation, and he began building a fort at the future site of Cumaná. May 19. The Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas, defender of the rights of native Americans, was licensed to colonize Venezuela. Obligated to establish three towns with forty residents each, las Casas failed in this and in his attempt to convert the natives. His order's mission of Chichirivichi was destroyed by the natives in October.»
- ^ (EN) Thomas E. Weil et al., Area handbook for Venezuela, a cura di The American University, Washington, Superintendent of Documents – U.S. Government printing office, 1971, p. 33, LCCN 74-611208, OCLC 211419.
«As Spanish mines and plantations in the Antilles used up the local Indian populations, raids on the relatively docile Indians of the coast became more frequent. To control such traffic and to protect the Indians, Spain sent Jácome Castellón, who, after subduing the Indians of the northeast area, in 1523 founded a fortified city called Nueva Córdoba, known today as Cumaná.»
- ^ (EN) Farming and fishing support Northeastern region, in Venezuela Up-to-date, vol. 3, n. 7, Washington, Ambasciata del Venezuela, giugno 1952, p. 20, ISSN 0042-3432 (WC · ACNP), OCLC 1768984, SBN UFI0537970.
«Attempts at colonization from Hispaniola and later from Margarita began in 1513; but the humanitarian and scientific effort to further agriculture and Christianity among the Cumanagotos promoted by Friar Bartolomé de las Casas was ruined by the interposition of soldier adventurers, against whom the local caciques revolted, and was finally dissipated in the punitive expedition of Ocampo. Jácome Castellón, who took over from Ocampo, then founded in 1523 the city of Nueva Córdoha which thrives today under the authoctonous name of Cumaná.»
- ^ (ES) Bartolomé de Las Casas, Capítulo 165, in André Saint-Lu (a cura di), Historia de las Indias, vol. 3, Caracas, Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1986, pp. 608-609, ISBN 980276020X.
«[...] los indios de la provincia de Cumaná, después de salido el clérigo Bartolomé de Las Casas para la isla Española, mataron un fraile y ciertos criados suyos y quemaron el atarazana y toda la hacienda que allí tenía [...] Luego el Almirante y Audiencia y toda la Consulta, que dijimos ser con éstos los oficiales del rey, determinaron de enviar otra armada para que castigase por guerra a aquella gente [...] Fue por capitán desta ente un vecino de la ciudad de Santo Domingo, llamado Jácome de Castellón. Este fue y llevó alguna gente, y tomó de la gente que estaba en la isla de Cubagua en la dicha pesquería de las perlas, y junta cuanta pudo, pasó a la Tierra Firme [...] y asentóse con ella a la boca del dicho río de Cumaná [...] Desde allí envió cuadrillas de españoles tras los indios, mató muchos dellos e hizo muchos esclavos [...] y así quedaron apaciguados. Edificó Jácome Castellón una fortaleza a la boca del río de Cumaná, donde el clérigo de Las Casas la quería edificar [...] Hízose después un muy buen pueblo de españoles en la isleta, con muchas casas de piedras y adobes y tapias [...] pero acabadas las perlas, después algunos y no muchos años, se quedó la población o pueblo todo despoblado [...] con las guerras dichas y esclaverías [...] y con las perlas está desierta o casi desierta de sus habitadores toda aquella tierra.»
- ^ (ES) Arístides Rojas, Orígenes venezolanos. Historia, tradiciones, crónicas y leyendas (PDF), a cura di Gregory Zambrano, Caracas, Fundación Biblioteca Ayacucho, 2008, p. 314, ISBN 978-980-276-452-5, OCLC 664125814. URL consultato il 23 novembre 2022. Ospitato su biblioteca.org.ar.
«La segunda colonia de Venezuela después de Cubagua, puede considerarse que fue la ciudad de Nueva Córdoba, hoy Santa Inés de Cumaná, comenzada en 1521; y la Asunción, capital de la Margarita, en 1525. Como se verá, a la Nueva Toledo de Ocampo debía seguir la Nueva Córdoba de Castellón, orígenes de la moderna Cumaná; mientras que la Asunción debía continuar bajo el gobierno pacífico de Villalobos.»
- ^ a b c (EN) Tomás Straka, Guillermo Guzmán Mirabal e Alejandro E. Cáceres, Natural disasters, in Historical dictionary of Venezuela, 3ª ed., Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield, 2018, pp. 250-251, ISBN 9781538109496, LCCN 2017033067.
«From a geographical and geological perspective, Venezuela is located at the edge of two tectonic plates, the Caribbean and the South American. [...] In addition, there are three large systems of geological faults that run across the north: the Boconó Fault (west), the San Sebastian Fault System (center), and El Pilar Fault System (east). [...] The first recorded American disaster occurred during the early years of the conquest of Venezuelan lands. On 1 September 1530, the fort built by Jácome Castellón, located in Nueva Toledo (now Cumaná) was destroyed by an earthquake, which given its intensity also resulted in an episode of marine transgression. [...] During the 17th century, Cumaná suffered a disaster with a high death toll in 1629 when the church and other religious buildings were leveled by an earthquake that caused the deaths of 300 people. [...] Other disasters of relevance in the 18th century took place in the cities of Maracaibo (1766), Trujillo (1775), and Cumaná (1794). [...]»
- ^ (EN) Leonard Victor Dalton, Venezuela (PDF), New York – Londra, Charles Scribner's Sons – T. Fisher Unwin, 1912, pp. 43-44 e pp. 73-74. URL consultato l'11 novembre 2022.
«The first important tremor noticed after the discovery and settlement of the shores of the Caribbean was that of 1530, which shook the city of Nueva Cadiz on the Island of Cubagua and destroyed the fortress of Cumaná, thus checking for some time the colonisation of the mainland in this region. Thirteen years later New Cadiz was visited again by earthquake and hurricane, and so disastrous were the results that from that day to the present Cubagua has been, what it was before the arrival of the Spaniards, a desert island. [...] In 1530 an earthquake shook the town and destroyed many buildings, not without loss of life, and in 1543 earthquake and hurricane together wrought so much havoc to life and property that only a few lingered on, persisting in the slave trade, for which New Cadiz was notorious, until at last the population decreased to nil in 1550; even the exact site of the city is now unknown.»
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