The Banco de la República Cultural Center in Florencia, located in Pizarro Square in the center of the city, is a space for reading, research, and contact with art and music from the department of Caquetá, Colombia, and the world. Its colonial building houses a consultation room where residents of the city have access to Banco de la República’s Library Network collection, which brings together bibliographic, audiovisual, photographic, and sound archives. It also has an exhibition hall, a children's room, and the Portón de Libros fair.
Travelling art, photography, anthropological, and educational exhibitions are open to the public, among other offerings, including a concert program with Colombian and international musicians, implemented in a decentralized manner (with events in the Monseñor Ángel Cuniberti Auditorium at the Universidad de la Amazonía, for example). Workshops on scientific, artistic, social, and cultural topics are also held for children and adults, as well as activities encouraging reading. At the Cultural Center, the community of Florencia can enjoy all the services offered by Banco de la República’s cultural network.
History
As Florencia was the capital of the Special Precinct of Caquetá, in 1932, the Board of Directors of the Banco de la República approved the opening of an agency of the central bank, which was initially located on the southeast side of Plaza Pizarro, now Santander Park. Thus, the bank began to serve the public on January 2, 1933.
Around 1941, Banco de la República began acquiring land on the northeast side of Plaza Pizarro, now Santander Park. Five years later, the central bank sold 357 m2 of its area, reducing the bank's footprint to 765 m2, the area in which it operates today. From November 1945 to March 1948, a two-story Banco de la República building was built, located in the central and banking area of the city, on the northwestern sector of the block between Carreras 10 and 11 and Calles 14 and 15 facing Santander Park.
In the 36 years following construction, the building has only been slightly modified in some of the features of its façade, allowing the conservation of its architectural state in dialogue with the environment of Santander Park.
In August 1984, the Banco de la República agency in Florencia was declared a “branch,” with Mr. Julio Enrique Martinez M. as director and first manager. The first board of directors of the branch was appointed around the same time.
In September 2000, Banco de la República’s Florencia branch closed its treasury, planning for the Cultural Center with which it would have a greater presence in the city through the library. In the city of Florencia, capital of the Department of Caquetá, the Golden Gate to the Colombian Amazon, on September 19, 2002, Banco de la República inaugurated the new Cultural Center in the branch office as a contribution to the cultural, social, and architectural heritage of the people of Caquetá and a gift to Florencia on the eve the city’s first centennial.
