Towards the end of the 20th century and into the beginning of the 21st, the city regained industrial dynamism, with the construction of the Medellín Metro commuter rail, liberalized development policies and improvement in security and education.

In February 2013, the Urban Land Institute chose Medellín as the most innovative city in the world due to its recent advances in politics, education, and social development.

The Spanish Medellín, in turn, was originally called "Metellinum" and was named after Roman general Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius in 75 BC, who founded the village as a military base.

Count Pedro Portocarrero y Luna, President of the Council for the West Indies (Consejo de Indias), asked the Monarchy of Spain to give the name of his town to the new settlement in America.

[17] In 1574, Gaspar de Rodas asked the Antioquia's cabildo for 10 square kilometers (4 sq mi) of land to establish herds and a ranch in the valley.

[17] Before the creation of the town, the inhabitants were scattered throughout the valley, with only a few families concentrated at the confluence of the Aná (today called the Santa Elena) and the Medellín rivers; others lived in El Poblado San Lorenzo.

The discovery of coal in Amagá, a few kilometers south of the Aburrá Valley, and the building of hydroelectric plants provided the new industries with energy, and this allowed the creation of many smaller companies.

The urban limits of the city grew to areas that were not contemplated in the MMP, so that Medellín now reached the urban areas of other cities of the Aburrá Valley, like Envigado, Bello and Itagüí; the new Medellín settlers were poor families without enough credit to buy their own homes, so several neighborhoods were built beyond the MMP; several old downtown buildings were demolished to construct tall towers, offices, and avenues.

The huge migration into Medellín provided workers for the expansion of textile factories, being modernized in this period,[17] but it also created new problems for the city: higher unemployment, lack of services for poor areas, urban violence in several districts, and collapse of any hope of a transport system.

The construction of the Plaza Mayor of Medellín, an international center for congresses and expositions, was designed to showcase the globalized economy of Colombia to the world.

[25] Today's Medellín includes spaces for art, poetry, drama, the construction of public libraries, the foundation of new ecological parks, and the inclusion of people of the city in its development.

[26][27][28] In 2012, Medellín was among 200 cities around the world, including New York and Tel Aviv, nominated for Most Innovative City of the Year due to a great advancement in public transportation, with more than 500,000 residents and visitors using its Metro train system each day; a public bike-share program; new facilities and landmarks, including the España Library and a cultural center in Moravia; a large outdoor escalator the size of a 28-story building, enabling residents of the city's elevated Comuna 13 neighborhood to safely ride down the steep hillside; and a Metro system which reduces Medellín's CO2 emissions by 175,000 tons each year.

[6] Under the Cultura E program, the city administration has established a network of 14 publicly funded business support centers known as CEDEZO, Centros de Desarrollo Empresarial Zonal).

[6] This has helped create more equal opportunities for all and overcome the barriers to entry to business for poor entrepreneurs with good ideas, but lacking capital, skills and connections.

[6] However, several mayoral candidates for the October 2011 elections have argued the Banco de las Opportunidades's interest rates are too high, loan maturity is too short and it should have grace periods.

However, its homicide rate has decreased by 95% and extreme poverty by 66%, thanks in part to a string of innovative mayors who laid out plans to integrate the poorest and most violent hillside neighborhoods into the city center in the valley below.

In October 2002, President Álvaro Uribe ordered the military to carry out "Operation Orion", the objective of which was to disband the urban militias of the FARC and the AUC.

These groups gained notoriety in Medellín for having called for curfews for the underage population, and having distributed fliers announcing the social cleansing of prostitutes, drug addicts, and alcoholics.

[52] The main economic activities of the Medellín Cluster (MC) are in electricity generation, textile, fashion design, construction, tourism and business.

These library parks are strategically located in the periphery of the city to address the need for more cultural and education space and public services in less affluent neighborhoods.

Although the Aburrá Valley was a hotspot in agriculture and livestock throughout the colonial period, their relative wealth is not expressed in an outstanding and Cartagena, Tunja, Popayán and Bogotá civil and religious architecture.

This can be explained by the fact that the population of Medellín was not political and administrative center and a place geographically isolated whose elite invested little in the development of monumental architecture.

In these natural public spaces one can find viewpoints, pre-Hispanic roads, religious icons, culture and Antioquian traditions, bird watching, the most complete herbal living of Aburrá Valley and the very few, if any, remains of early settlers native of Medellín, among other attractions.

Medellín is considered a top research city in medicine in Colombia, being an exponent of advanced surgical operations in the country and Latin America.

[citation needed] Paisas are said to speak softly and quickly, to smile easily, and to love music, poetry, soccer, bargaining in the markets, and parties.

The city has a soccer legacy thanks to notable players such as René Higuita, Iván Córdoba, Andrés Escobar, Víctor Aristizábal, Jackson Martínez and many others.

Other notable sportsmen of the city are the professional golfer and PGA Tour player Camilo Villegas, Medellín-born Israeli Olympic show jumping rider Daniel Bluman, and the retired Formula One, Champ Car, and IndyCar driver Roberto Guerrero.

A popular sport in Medellín, and generally throughout Antioquia, is horseback riding; therefore, it has encouraged trade and production of tools and equipments for this activity, such as chairs and horseshoes for export.

151 of February 20, 2002, and as emblems of the city are part of the corporate image of management municipal, and therefore are present in the acts, events and official media in which these should appear by its representative character.

The Medellín coat of arms is the oldest emblem of the city, having its origins in a grant by King Charles II of Spain by royal decree issued in Madrid on March 31 of 1678: ...On a blue field shield, a very thick and round tower, battlemented, an inescutcheon of fifteen parts – seven blue and eight gold, on each of the sides a smaller tower, and in between them an image of Our Lady on a cloud with her son in her arms...However, a more refined and structured in heraldic language, though not official, would be: In an Azure field, a round tower of gold stands, masoned and clarified by sable, with a checkered escutcheon of 15 pieces – 7 blue and 8 gold (coat of arms of House of Portocarrero) – stamped with an ancient crown of gold between its two towers, with a cloud upon which stands the image of Our Lady of Candelaria carrying the Child in her left arm, a candle in her right hand, radiant, she is flanked by forming clouds from each county.The blazon has remained over time since it was granted, without further changes to the aesthetics, it is noteworthy that there are different stylistic versions between the Mayor and City Council also meets aesthetic not heraldic standards.