Córdoba is a city in central Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River, about 700 km northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of Córdoba Province and the second-most populous city in Argentina after Buenos Aires, with about 1.6 million urban inhabitants. A European settlement was founded on 6 July 1573 by Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera, who named it after Córdoba, Spain. It was one of the early Spanish colonial capitals of the region of present-day Argentina (the oldest Argentine city is Santiago del Estero, founded in 1553). The National University of Córdoba, the oldest university of the country, was founded in 1613 by the Jesuit Order, and Córdoba has earned the nickname ("the learned").