Colonia Tovar

DECEMBER 27, 2016 - TOVAR COLONY, OLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA: The Church of St. Martin of Tours in Colonia Tovar. Founded in 1843, the town is a former colony founded by a group of German families at 1,800 meters above sea level. The village has become a fast-growing small town with 14,309 inhabitants in 2001, compared with 3,373 in the 90's. This village is atypical in the country by its architecture and its urbanism which takes again the picturesque Alpine style German. The Colonia Tovar has for this reason become a major tourist center. Its inhabitants are called by the Venezuelans the "Alemannisch", and are mostly descendants of German immigrant workers, who "allochtones" are allowed to keep their culture and their language from Low German, alemán coloniero. (Photo by Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)