Caracas

Caracas, capital and chief city of Venezuela, northern Venezuela, in the fertile Caracas Valley near the Caribbean port of La Guaira. Caracas is the commercial and industrial centre of Venezuela. Among the city's many industries are vehicle assembly, sugar refining, meat packing, brewing, tanning, oil refining, and the manufacture of paper, cigarettes, glassware, textiles, rubber products, and pharmaceuticals. Caracas is linked by air, rail, and road with La Guaira, with western Venezuela, and with Ciudad Bolívar.

The Plaza Bolívar, one of many squares and public gardens in Caracas, contains a bronze equestrian statue of Simón Bolívar, the South American statesman and revolutionary who was born in Caracas. The gilt-domed capitol building, the Central University of Venezuela (1721), and the National Pantheon, where Bolívar is buried, are nearby. Another important building is the Roman Catholic cathedral, built in 1636; Caracas is the seat of the Catholic archbishop of Venezuela.

The city was founded in 1567 as Santiago de León de Caracas and became one of the most prosperous Spanish colonial communities in South America. It was sacked by the English under Sir Francis Drake in 1595. In 1810 under Bolívar's leadership it became the centre of the first revolt in the war of independence against Spain (1810-1821). Caracas became the capital of the Venezuelan Republic in 1829. During its history the city has suffered several earthquakes: in 1812, 12,000 people were killed and most of the city was destroyed; 277 people were killed and many buildings damaged in 1967. In 2000, the main university campus (Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas), designed by the architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Population 1,836,000 (2001).