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Published: January 15th 2005
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Valparaiso is a port city that begs you to explore its winding and hilly streets. The backstreets are filled with the small-town spirit of days gone by. I spent one afternoon just roaming the hills. I was impressed by the friendliness of the people. In these backstreets and hills lies a charm only found in small towns. People actually say hello to you in passing. I stopped to talk with artisits, gals in bakeries and old ladies. Here is a brief history of the city of Valparaiso with photos I took during my stay on January 14th, 2005.
History of Valparaiso:
When Captain Juan de Saavedra arrived in what is today known as the Bay of Valparaíso, it was inhabited by the indigenous Changos, who called the surrounding area the Valley of Quintil. The conquistador dropped anchor in what has since become Plaza Echaurren, and in honour of his home town back in Spain, founded Valparaíso. The captain and his crew had sailed down from Callao in their ship the Santiaguillo, carrying provisions for the expedition of Diego Almagro, the first Spaniard to step foot on Chilean soil.
In 1542 Pedro de Valdivia (conquistador who was opening up new
territories in the name of the Spanish crown) confirmed Valparaíso’s port status, and by the end of the 16th century, a small chapel had been erected where the La Matriz church now stands, surrounded by ten basic dwellings.
Like so many other Latin American ports, Valparaíso grew quite spontaneously. During the summer months of the 16th and 17th centuries, the place became a flurry of activity, with many ships stopping off as they sailed down from Callao. And even though trade slacked off during the winter, the surrounding city grew in response to the port’s ever increasing importance.
After the 19th century independence wars, the continent’s ports became ripe for the winds of free trade then sweeping the globe. This heralded the “golden age” for Valparaíso, vestiges of which can still be seen today. The coastal city held a strategic position, being the first port of call for all those ships that had journeyed around Cape Horn from the Atlantic, heading for the Pacific islands, and which needed to stock up on much-needed provisions. In those far off days, the bay would normally be full of vessels, and the port's warehouses of merchandise, waiting to be loaded and
dispatched to every part of the Pacific rim.
The ocean became the door into and out of Chile, and Valparaíso a magnet for German, English and French entrepreneurs, who were soon running the local imports and exports trade. With easy access to foreign capital, they also started to invest in other areas, turning to the fledgling industries of mineral exploitation, particularly copper, silver and saltpetre (nitrates), along with important public works projects, such as the British-built railway.
Here were founded Chile’s first banks and first stock exchange, and the city became the country's principal trade and financial centre. The driving force behind this tremendous surge came from a small group of powerful financiers, who preferred to base themselves in Valparaíso, but whose business concerns were mainly in the mines and nitrate fields in the north of Chile. It was during this period that the great townhouses, mansions and so-called palaces were built, many of which can still be seen today, some as museums, others as private homes, hostels or bed and breakfasts.
Back in those days, Valparaíso was the forerunner in almost everything: first population vaccinated against smallpox; first regular passenger liner between the American continent, Oceania
Riding the Ascensor Mariposa
These Funiculars (tracked trolly cars) are located all over the city because it is so hilly and difficult to climb uphill. and India; the first steamship in the Pacific; the first club in Chile; the first astronomical observatory; the first insurance company; the first fire brigade; the first warships built in the country; the first public library in South America; the first tunnel; the first public drinking-water system; the first gas lights on the continent; the first ecclesiastic government; the first telegraph and telephones; the first general cemetery; the first balloon flight; the first paved road; the first radio station; and it was from here that they started to build the railway link with Santiago.
This amazing boom period came to an abrupt end when the Panama Canal sliced through Central America. Between 1914 and 1930, the port of Valparaíso stopped being a port-of-call and became just the end destination for local shipping companies. And not only did the maritime activity grind to a halt, for most of the great financial institutions soon moved over to the capital, Chile’s new centre of political and financial power: and thus the pearl of the Pacific lost its shine.
The downfall of this charming city, sadly continues today. One of the highest levels of unemployment in the country, and a commercial port
in constant decline, are grimly reflected in the streets, markets and public buildings. But one could also suggest that it is this atmosphere of decadence, that makes the place so attractive, so poetic, so magnetic for a whole range of artists, intellectuals and bohemians.
Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda, poet who held this city so dear to his heart and even had one of his a homes here, offered the following deliberation: "She's very close to Santiago, separated only by the jagged mountains, on whose summit rise up, like obelisks, great cactus, blooming and hostile. Nevertheless, there is something so infinitely indefinable that distances Valparaíso from Santiago. The city of Santiago is a prisoner, besieged on all sides by walls of ice. Valparaíso, on the other hand, opens its gates to the infinite sea, to the cry of the streets, to the eyes of the children."
Valparaíso, today run-down and half-forgotten, but full of interminable stairways: "No other city sheds them," continued Neruda, "or casts them into the past, into one’s face, or rears up and merges them like Valparaíso. There is no face of any other city that has these furrows, where lives come and go, as
La Sebastiana (house of Pablo Neruda)
A view of Valparaiso from Neruda´s house at La Sebastiana if they were forever climbing to heaven, as if they were forever descending to creation."
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Glad you are enjoying the city, try checking out our English bookstore Cummings 1 up from Plz. Anibal Pinto. Say hello to Daniella for me. - james