Villa Unión

Villa Unión is one of the seven congregaciones, or rural wards, that make up the municipality of Fortín, each run by its own municipal agent. It sits south of Fortín de las Flores, the municipal seat, at about 840 metres above sea level: lower than the town itself, which is close to 1,000 m, in the warm, rainy belt where the Altas Montañas region drops toward the coastal plain.

The 2020 census counted 1,564 residents. Growth has come in fits and starts: 411 people in 1921, only 198 in 1930, and the village did not pass one thousand until 2000. Between 2010 and 2020 alone it added about 350 people.

The whole municipality lives off the land. Fortín is known for its plant nurseries and flower growing, with the gardenia as its emblem, and its coat of arms shows sugarcane and coffee, the long-standing crops of the area. The climate is semi-warm and humid, with average temperatures of 18 to 22 °C and heavy rainfall of 1,800 to 2,500 mm a year. For history, head up to the municipal seat, with its arcaded town hall, the El Águila monument to the 1862 battle and, on the outskirts, the chapel and ruins of the Monte Blanco hacienda, founded in 1618.