Macuto, Vargas
| Macuto | |
|---|---|
| San Bartolomé de Macuto | |
.svg.png)  Macuto | |
| Coordinates: 10°36′24″N 66°53′33″W / 10.60667°N 66.89250°WCoordinates: 10°36′24″N 66°53′33″W / 10.60667°N 66.89250°W | |
| Country |
 |
| State | Vargas |
| Municipality | Macuto Municipality |
| Founded | 24 August 1740 |
| Time zone | VST |
| Climate | BSh |
Macuto is a city in Vargas state, Venezuela.
Macuto was founded in August 1740 on the site of an indigenous village called Guaicamacuto ("basket of thorns"). It is known for its beaches, and for the nearby town of Galipán on the mount Avila, famous for its flowers.
Macuto was, during the XIX century, a vacation center for Caracas` rich people. Elegant houses were constructed in and around a seaside boulevard. It was also the place where several Venezuelan presidents spent some time off and received international dignitaries, specially since the building of "La Guzmania", a country residence for Venezuelan heads of state. A very fashionable hotel, Miramar, was inaugurated in the 1920s and is still standing although abandoned.
Macuto is also famous as the hideaway and final residence of celebrated Venezuelan artist Armando Reverón, a modernist and a visionary, painter and craftman, who built a compound of huts surrounded by a wall (similar to a clastle) named "El Castillete" ("little castle"), where he lived with his companion Juanita, his dolls, handmade objects and "ghosts". In Macuto he developed a unique vision of tropical light, since them his life and work became indivisible from the town.
The relationship of Macuto with a special perspective of tropical light and seacoast landscapes is no coincidence. Almost all the great Venezuelan painters (and some other foreigners) painted Macuto's seaside scenes: Arturo Michelena, Cristobal Rojas, Martín Tovar y Tovar and others were captivated by the sea, beaches and tropical light of this small coastal town.
Actually Macuto is a vibrant beach-city, with nearly 100,000 inhabitants. It is linked to Caracas by highway & "avenida" roads.
Macuto has famous hotels (like the "Hilton") and the "Caraballeda Yacht Club" with golf courses.