Manizales is an Andean mountain city in the Colombian coffee zone, it is located in one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. The tropical Andean region is one of the 25 priority regions for the conservation of life on earth. The city presents a complex urban fabric that has evolved in response to an abrupt topography, within a natural environment of great value in its routes, since the built up area is integrated with the natural environment, configuring a diverse and stimulating urban landscape.
The quality of the landscape that surrounds the city is mainly caused by a variety of climates, which ranges from high mountain landscapes with perpetual snow to valleys cultivated mostly with coffee, among a great wealth of relief shapes and forms of mountain of great depth. The city's altitude of 2,150 meters above sea level, therefore makes it possible to change climates within a radius of 30 kilometers, which vary between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and heights between 5,000 and 150 meters above sea level.
From the moment in which UNESCO [2] declared the Colombian Coffee Cultural Landscape as a World Heritage Site, the region that includes the departments of Caldas, Quindío, Risaralda and Norte del Valle, also called the Ecoregion of the Coffee growing belt, remains included and recognized in the list of world heritage assets, which enables the region to position itself as a property of cultural and natural interest.
The Historical and Traditional Center of Manizales has an important architectural and landscape heritage and is a living center with intense public activity. It's cold mountain climate, with a generally cloudy atmosphere, offers an atmosphere of seclusion. The traditional architecture of Manizales is sober and homogeneous, typical of the architecture of the "Antioquia region colonization": with white-walled bahareque houses in lime and carved woodwork. In addition, in Manizales there is an important urban and architectural heritage, representative of the Republican period, considered the largest group of Republican architecture in the country.
On the other hand, Manizales is the town in the country with the largest number of entities for artistic training or practice (visual arts, dance, theater, literature and music) registered per million inhabitants (according to the Competitiveness Council 2008). And the Coffee Axis is recognized as a cultural and university region for its more than 100,000 students, 14 universities, 12 research and development centers, the largest computational bioinformatics center for research and development in Latin America.
