San Juan, Argentina
Encyclopedia : S : SA : SAN : San Juan, Argentina
San Juan is the capital city of the Argentine province of San Juan in the wine-producing Cuyo region in Argentina, located at coordinates at the Tulúm Valey, west of the San Juan River, and at 650 m asl, with a population of around 120,000, with over 450,000 counting the suburbs.
History and architectury
Before the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadores, the Huarpe Indians inhabited this area.San Juan de la Frontera was founded on June 13 1562 by Juan Jufré at the shore of the San Juan River. In 1593 flooding damaged the town, for which reason its setting was moved 2.5 km South to its current location.
San Juán was a sleepy, peaceful place during colonial times (1562-1810) and took practically no part in the internecine wars that devastated Argentina in its so-called Organizational Period (1820-1860.) Two of the most prominent members of the 1816 Congress of Tucumán which declared Argentina's independence from Spain, however, came from San Juán: Narciso Fernández de Laprida, who was president of the congress, and San Juan's bishop Fray Justo de Santa María de Oro, a Dominican friar and an eloquent speaker whose persuasive oratory was largely responsible for Argentina becoming a republic and not a monarchy like Brazil.
Probably the most important and famous son of the city was Fray Justo's nephew Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, whose birthplace was turned into a National Historical Monument in 1910, during the administration of president Roque Sáenz Peña.
On January 15, 1944, a powerful earthquake devastated the city, killing around 10,000 people. Another quake, 7.4 in the Richter magnitude scale, struck 80 km northeast of the city on November 23, 1977, causing considerable damage and killing 65 persons around the province.
The city has been beautifully reconstructed on concentric boulevards, with straight, well lit, tree-lined avenues which offer plenty of excellent, modern housing. It has mostly lost its colonial aspect, but retains an open, sun-drenched, cheerfully Mediterranean look. San Juan is the proud possessor of one of the most modern and active concert halls in Argentina, as well as many leafy parks and squares, including Parque de Mayo with its vast artificial lake—not a mean achievement in an essentially arid province .
The old cathedral, an 18th century jewel in the Jesuit style, was destroyed in the 1944 earthquake, but has been replaced by a modern-Tuscan-romanesque building. It has a graceful campanile. San Juan is the seat of a Roman Catholic metropolitan Archbishop and a Catholic University.
Geography and climate
The city of San Juan is located in a fertile valley within a rocky mountainous area. Winter temperatures are generally mild, between 1ºC and 18ºC, while summers are hot and very dry, with temperatures between 19ºC and 35ºC.65% of the all production is related to the wine production.
Transport
The city lays on National Route 40 that connects it with Mendoza (168 km) to the south and La Rioja (449 km) to the north, and is connected to the National Route 20, that drives to San Luis (323 km). Distance to other cities: Córdoba (585 km), Catamarca (623 km) and Buenos Aires (1110 km).The Domingo Faustino Sarmiento at coordinates is 12 kilometres southwest of the city, and serves regular flights to Buenos Aires and Mendoza.
Tourism
Tourism to San Juan is centred on wine production and dégustation as well as the extraordinary rock formations in places like Ischigualasto National Park, 330 kilometres form the city, the Valle de la Luna and Ullúm Dam, at 18 km.Another curiosity of sorts is the Difunta Correa sanctuary, 64 km kilometres away from San Juan, on route 141.
There is also the celebrated Mariano Gambier Archeology museum at La Laja, Albardón county, some 25 km from the center of the city. It concerns itself with the many cultures that inhabited San Juan from Pre-History till the arrival of the Spaniards in 1560. It has a priceless collection of Indian artifacts, cave paintings and other elements of agriculture and life in the Tulum valley for the last 8500 years.
External links
- [Municipality of San Juan] - Official website.
- [Municipal information] - Municipal Affairs Federal Institute (IFAM), Municipal Affairs Secretariat, Ministry of Interior, Argentina.
- [City info]
- [Earthquakes in San Juan]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.