San Basilio de Palenque

San Basilio de Palenque is a city belonging to the so-called Mahates Palenque village in the administrative area of ​​Bolívar in the north of Colombia, with about 3,500 inhabitants.

It is considered the first free village in South America. Palenque referred to a settlement founded by runaway slaves. San Basilio de Palenque is the only one of these villages, which still exists today. Its inhabitants are mostly Afro-Colombians, who are descendants of African slaves. Because of the isolated location, there have preserved many ancient customs and traditions. This manifests itself, for example, in its own musical culture. Also Palenquero, the only Spanish -based creole language in Latin America, will there still spoken.

2005, the cultural area of San Basilio de Palenque was declared by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity and entered 2008 in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.