Santa Cruz de la Sierra

Santa Cruz de la Sierra, commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the largest city in Bolivia and capital of the Santa Cruz department, on the Pirai River in the country's eastern tropical lowlands. Its metropolitan region, a conurbation of seven municipalities including La Guardia, Warnes and Montero, was the most populous urban agglomeration in Bolivia, with an estimated 2.4 million people in 2020. The Spanish explorer Ñuflo de Chavez founded the city in 1561 about 200 kilometers east of its present location, and it was moved several times before settling on the Pirai River in the late 16th century; for most of its history it remained a small outpost, growing rapidly only after mid-20th-century agrarian and land reforms. Its tropical, low-elevation climate contrasts with the much higher city of La Paz, and Santa Cruz now produces nearly 35 percent of Bolivia's gross domestic product and receives more than 40 percent of the country's foreign direct investment as its principal business center.