Rionegro - City of Colombia

Rionegro is a city and municipality in Antioquia Department, Colombia, located in the subregion of Eastern Antioquia. The official name of the municipality is "Santiago de Arma de Rionegro" but is named after the Negro River which is the most prominent geographical feature of the municipality. Rionegro is also sometimes called the Cuna de la democracia as it was one of the most important cities during the era of the Colombia's struggle for independence and the 1886 constitution was written in the town.

The territory was first mentioned in 1541 by Alvaro de Mendoza. When the Captain Jorge Robledo took possession of the Valley of Aburrá, he was commissioned by Alvaro de Mendoza. According to Fray Pedro Simón, Robledo was the first Iberian man who discovered the Valley of Rionegro on September 2 of 1541. Don Juan Daza, a Spaniard of illustrious lineage, took possession of the lands sometime later, and on the 8th of November of 1581, in agreement with the rituals of the laws of Indians,nailed his sword in the ground marking it has an inhabited place and began constructing a farm.

Rionegro grew in the nineneeth century and was an important center during the time it was a Spanish colony, and in the early years of Independence. The city then revalled Santafé de Antioquia to compete for the capital of Antioquia, until the city of Medellín grew prominently and far exceeded the growth of these cities.