Pasto - City of Colombia

Pasto, officially San Juan de Pasto, is the capital of the department of Nariño, located in southwest Colombia. The city is located in the "Atriz Valley", on the Andes cordillera, at the foot of the Galeras volcano, at an altitude of 8.290 feets above sea level.

Pasto was originally founded in 1537 by the Spanish conquistador Sebastián de Belalcázar, in 1539 the also Spanish conquistador Lorenzo de Aldana move the city to its actual location, and established there under the name "San Juan de Pasto". Pasto is a reference to the name of the indigenous people who inhabited the region at the arrival of the conquerors, the Pastos, however the Atriz Valley was inhabited by the Quillacingas.

It has been an administrative, cultural and religious center of the region since colonial times, because of this, the city is known as the theological city of Colombia. During the Independence Wars against Spain Pasto was a royalist city unlike the rest of the country, so after gaining independence and because of its geographical location, it remained for long time isolated from the rest of the country which has resulted in the traditionalist attitude and cultural self-absorption of its people.

On June 25, 2006 Deportivo Pasto became the champion of the 1st division of soccer in Colombia.

The University of Nariño also referred to as Udenar, is a public, coeducational research university with its main campus in Pasto, Colombia. The university has satellite campuses located in the Colombian cities of Ipiales and Tumaco.

The University of Nariño is an independent institution of higher education tied to the Ministry of National Education. Its objective is the development of higher education and investigation, which will be fomented by the state allowing the access to and developing it on a par of sciences and the arts to reach excellence.