Guarne is a town and municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in the Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

n department

Departments of Colombia

Colombia is an unitary republic formed by thirty-two departments and a Capital District . Each department has a Governor and a Department Assembly , elected by popular vote for a four-year period. The governor cannot be re-elected in consecutive periods...

 of Antioquia

Antioquia Department

Antioquia is one of the 32 departments of Colombia, located in the central northwestern part of Colombia with a narrow section that borders the Caribbean Sea. Most of its territory is mountainous with some valleys, much of which is part of the Andes mountain range...

. Part of the subregion of Eastern Antioquia

Eastern Antioquia

Eastern Antioquia is subregion of the Colombian Department of Antioquia. The region is conformed by 23 municipalities.-Geography:...

.

History

The first settlers of Guarne were Tahamíes Indians who came from the Nare River. In 1541, Alvaro Mendoza encountered the Guarne area, but finding no gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

, returned to the Aburrá Valley

Aburrá Valley

Aburrá Valley , is the natural basin of the Medellín River and one of the most populous valleys of Colombia in its Andean Region with near 3 million inhabitants. The valley is located on the Central Range, over the Antioquian Mountain just between the Magdalean and Cauca valleys from east to west...

. In 1640, searching for gold, Captain Fernando del Toro Zapata and Diego Beltran del Castillo arrived at Guarne. The first post-columbian settlers of the area of Guarne were slaves. In 1757, Guarne became part of Rionegro, and in 1814, Juan del Corral created the Guarne Township.