Talcahuano

Talcahuano

Talcahuano is a municipality and port city in the Bio-Bio Region of Chile. It is part of the Greater Concepción conurbation.

Geography

Talcahuano is located in the south of the central zone of Chile. Together with ten other municipalities, it forms part of the Province of Concepción, which in turn is one of four provinces that forms the VIII Region or Bío-Bío Region.

The municipality of Talcahuano has an area of 148.29 km² and, according to the 2002 Census, has a population of 250,348 inhabitants. With a population density of 1,873 inhabitants per square kilometre, it is the seventh most populated city of the country.

History

The official foundation date of Talcahuano is November 5, 1764 when Antonio Guill y Gonzaga declared an official port. However, Talcahuano began to appear in history books as early as 1544 when Genoese captain Juan Bautista Pastene discovered the mouth of the Bio-Bío river while exploring the coast in his ships “"San Pedro"” and “"Santiaguillo"”.

The city is named after an Araucanian chief, Talcahueñu, who inhabited the region at the arrival of the Spanish. In Mapudungun, the language of the indigenous Mapuches, Talcahuano means “Thundering Sky”.

The port was well known to American whaleships of the 19th century. They often put in for fresh water, food, and various forms of entertainment for the crews.

Economy

Talcahuano contains Chile's main naval base which is home of the historical relic, the "Huascár", a Peruvian ironclad ship (British-made), which was captured in 1879 during the War of the Pacific. It is also the base of the Chilean submarine fleet and the ASMAR shipyard.

Culture

ports

Talcahuano entered football history when Ramón Unzaga Asla, a player for the local club Estrella del Mar, invented the famous bicycle kick (also known as "chilena") there in 1914.

The city is home to Club Deportivo Huachipato, a football club in Chile's , playing at Estadio Las Higueras.

In literature

It featured prominently in Miles Smeeton's book "Once Is Enough", a sailor's classic. ["Once Is Enough", by Miles Smeeton. International Marine Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-07-141431-2]

It is mentioned by the character Charlie Marlow in Joseph Conrad's book "Lord Jim".

External links

*http://www.talcahuano.cl
* [http://maps.google.com/maps?q=talcahuano+chile&t=k Satellite view of Talcahuano] (Google Maps)

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

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