Colonia Valdense
| Colonia Valdense | |
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| City | |
Celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Italian immigrants.
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 Colonia Valdense
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| Coordinates: 34°20′18″S 57°15′55″W / 34.33833°S 57.26528°W | |
| Country |
 Uruguay
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| Department | Colonia |
| Elevation | 34 m (112 ft) |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Total | 3,235 |
| Time zone | UTC -3 |
| Postal code | 70202 |
| Dial plan | +598 455 (+5 digits) |
Colonia Valdense is a small city located in southwestern Uruguay, within the Colonia Department. It is home to around 3,200 people.
It lies along Route 1, 120 kilometres (75 mi) west of Montevideo and about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) west of its intersection with Route 51.
Colonia Valdense was founded in 1856 (officially as "Valdense"), following the arrival of Italian immigrants from Piedmont and the Aosta Valley. The town is named after Pierre Valdo, a French priest founder of the religious movement known as "The Waldensians". The Waldensian Evangelical Church has a strong presence here.
Spoken dialec was the Patois, which was a mixture of French and Italian. The dialect was spoken mainly in the Colonia Department, where the first philigrins settled, in the city called La Paz, Colonia. Today it is consider a dead language, although some elders at the mentioned location still practice it. There are still written tracks of the language in the Waldensians Library (Biblioteca Valdense) in the town of Colonia Valdense, Colonia Department. Patois speaker arrived to Uruguay from the Piedmont. Originally were Vaudois which become Waldensians giving their name to the city Colonia Valdense which translated from the Spanish means Waldensians Colony.
Its status was elevated to "Pueblo" (village) on 6 November 1951 by the Act of Ley N° 11.742. On 24 September 1982, it was renamed to "Colonia Valdense" and its status was elevated to "Ciudad" (city) by the Act of Decreto-Ley N° 15.323.
According to the 2011 census, Colonia Valdense had a population of 3,235.
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