Sinçel

Sinçel is associated with the Indigenous settlement that preceded Sincelejo in the savannas of the Colombian Caribbean interior. The district lay within the wider Zenú world, between the Sinú and San Jorge river basins. Its communities cultivated the rolling lowlands and maintained links with neighbouring settlements.

Spanish colonial rule replaced the Indigenous settlement with San Francisco de Asís de Sincelejo, traditionally dated to 1535. Between 1610 and 1640 it formed part of Alonso Padilla’s encomienda. In 1776 Antonio de la Torre y Miranda reorganised the settlement as part of his campaign to concentrate the population of the Caribbean savannas in planned towns. The reorganisation sought to draw dispersed households towards the church and a more regular street plan. Corozal became the principal political and military centre of the surrounding savannas.