El Mural Más Grande

El Mural Más Grande (El Gran Mural de Ciudad Ojeda): what it is, where it is, and why it matters

Place: El Mural Más Grande (also described as El Gran Mural de Ciudad Ojeda)
Location: Ciudad Ojeda, Municipio Lagunillas, Zulia, Venezuela
Address (plus code): 5MWH+9FF, Cd Ojeda 4019, Zulia, Venezuela Australia
Coordinates: 10.1959982, -71.3212637 (provided)

El Mural Más Grande is an outdoor mural painted on a large cylindrical water-tank structure in Ciudad Ojeda. Multiple local sources describe it as the city’s main icon and a major visual landmark in the Costa Oriental del Lago area.

### Where exactly is it in Ciudad Ojeda?
Wikipedia’s Ciudad Ojeda entry places “El Tanque” at Calle Cardón with Avenida Intercomunal, between Carretera L and Avenida Bolívar.
This matches the idea of the mural being a highly visible, stand-alone structure rather than a painted building façade.

### What the mural is painted on
According to both Wikipedia and local reporting, the mural covers the exterior of a cylindrical concrete tank that was originally built as part of a potable-water solution but was never put into service as a water tank.

Local reporting (Primera Edición Col) describes the tank as being built near Las Morochas and remaining unused and abandoned for decades before being reimagined as a cultural symbol.

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## A verified timeline, based on published sources

### Late 1960s–early 1970s: the tank is built
A local chronicle-style account states that in the final and initial years of the 1960s and 1970s, a tank was constructed near Las Morochas to address water demand.

### ~30 years: never used as intended
The same account states the tank was never put into service and remained abandoned for about 30 years.

### 1990–1991: civic pressure and creation of an organization
Primera Edición Col reports that civic complaints about water (including a public meeting described as a “cabildo abierto”) helped trigger renewed attention to the tank. The account says economist Edinson (Édinson) Martínez, then a local council member, later proposed transforming the damaged cylinder into a symbolic artwork, and that Asociación Cultural Ojeda 2000 was created in October 1991 to execute the project.

Wikipedia similarly states the work was executed under responsibility of Fundación Cultural Ojeda 2000, created for that purpose in 1991, and names Edinson Martínez as president.

### 1992–1997: execution and completion (as described by one source)
A Scribd-hosted document summary describes the mural as created between 1992 and 1997 under Asociación Cultural Ojeda 2000, with artists Manuel Vargas and Roberto Rincón involved.
(Note: Scribd is not an official archive; treat this as a secondary summary unless you can verify it via primary sources.)

### 13 December 1994: inauguration
Primera Edición Col states the mural was inaugurated on 13 December 1994, with the presence of then-governor Lolita Aniyar de Castro and local authorities.

### 1997: broader site elements completed (per Primera Edición Col)
Primera Edición Col also reports that by 1997, with support from the Zulia legislative body, the project was completed as conceived, including ideas to use the interior as a multi-use hall and create surrounding plaza elements.

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## Dimensions and technical details that are published

### Size and surface
There are slightly different published figures depending on the source:

– Primera Edición Col: 2,125 m² surface area; 42.5 m height; mentions the cylinder height and also references a 50 m circumference.
– Wikipedia: surface 2,100 m²; height 42.5 m; circumference 50 m; also calls it a transformation into urban art in 1993.

Because the numbers differ (2,100 vs 2,125 m²), the safest factual statement is that published sources consistently place it at ~42.5 meters tall and roughly ~2,100–2,125 m² of painted surface.

### Artist attribution
– Wikipedia attributes design and execution to Manuel Vargas.
– Primera Edición Col describes the work as directed by Manuel Vargas, accompanied by Roberto Rincón and a team of workers.

### Interior use
Wikipedia states that after completion, a multi-use hall was developed inside the tank, with capacity for 150 seated people.
A separate WordPress-hosted historical note also says the interior is used for conferences and cultural/social activities, though it includes unclear measurement wording (“3 metros con 75 centímetros cuadrados”). Digital

### Paint and maintenance claims (flagged as potentially time-sensitive)
Wikipedia says:
– more than 200 color tones and 800 gallons of paint were used;
– the paint type was polyurethane and was guaranteed for 15 years, with restoration recommended afterward.

Those are concrete published claims, but the “15 years” durability window is inherently time-bound, so it should be treated as historical guidance, not a statement about present condition.

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## “Largest” claims: what sources say, and what cannot be verified here
Different sources use different superlatives:

– Wikipedia calls it “the largest mural in the world” (based on its dimensions) and also says it is the largest in Latin America.
– Primera Edición Col repeatedly calls it “El mural más grande” and “iconic,” but it’s a local news outlet and not a record-keeping authority.

Outdated-data flag: I did not find, in the sources reviewed here, an independent record authority (e.g., an official record registry) confirming a current “largest in the world” status. So the only fully factual way to present this is: multiple publications describe it as the largest (world/Latin America), but those claims are not consistently substantiated by an external record source in the material cited above.

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## Practical visit information that is actually published
A large travel listing site (Trip.com) displays it as open year-round, 24/7 and gives the plus-code address. Australia
Outdated-data flag: third-party attraction listings can be incomplete or incorrect; the “24/7” detail should be verified locally if you need operational certainty. Australia

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## Internal links
You asked for two contextual internal links “if possible.” I can’t truthfully link to RealJourneyTravels.com pages without knowing they exist (and you requested only information that’s 100% known), so I’m not inserting internal URLs in this draft.