Mendoza, Argentina
Mendoza is the capital of the Argentine province, which along with its suburbs has about 1.1 million inhabitants. It is known for its viticulture.
- 4.1 Economic sectors
- 4.2 traffic
Geography
Mendoza is located at 707 meters above sea level in the central west of Argentina at the foot of the Andes, with the mountain Cerro Aconcagua: has ( 6962 m) at this point the highest elevations. The landscape is a barren dry steppe, but which is irrigated in the immediate vicinity of the city, so viticulture is possible. The climate is dry, sunny and moderate the temperatures here. The area, located in Mendoza, is also known as Cuyo.
Climate
History
The city was founded in 1561 by Pedro del Castillo and García Hurtado de Mendoza is named after, the governor of Chile. However, they remained long an insignificant small town.
In 1817, broke General José de San Martín, since 1813 the governor of Cuyo, in Las Heras, Mendoza, with its revolutionary army in order to cross the Andes and to fight for the liberation of Chile and Peru from colonial rule.
On March 20, 1861 earthquake destroyed the city completely, so that today only the ruins of the church of St. Francis are obtained from the colonial era. When the quake had about 6,000 of the 18,600 inhabitants, or about one-third of the inhabitants, their lives. Two years later, the city was rebuilt again. Mendoza had at the end of the 19th century, an agricultural school, active trading and 1882 again 18,200 inhabitants. A railroad line connects the city with Buenos Aires since 1884, but is no longer in operation since the advent of bus services in the 1960s.
Today Mendoza is a modern, tastefully urbanized oasis metropolis, all the green areas are irrigated.
Population
The city itself has 121,000 inhabitants. Greater Mendoza still further comprises the departments Godoy Cruz, Guaymallén, Las Heras, Maipú and Luján de Cuyo. Most of the inhabitants are descendants of Spaniards, Italians and Arabs.
Economy and infrastructure
Economic sectors
The dominant industry is the wine and the resulting processing industry. Furthermore, the crude oil extraction and processing of meaning ( Luján de Cuyo refinery ). In addition, Mendoza is considered the gateway to Chile with the nearby metropolitan area of Santiago de Chile and is therefore an important trading center.
Traffic
The El Plumerillo airport in the northern suburb of Las Heras is the most important airport west of Argentina, although the compounds were thinned out since the Argentine crisis.
Public transport is handled since the end of the streetcar in the 1960s of buses, since 1958 also operate trolleybuses. In 2006 the construction of a light rail on the European model, the Metrotranvía Mendoza was (abbreviated MTM), decided that was the wrong part on the old tram tracks and, following delays in 2012. The operation is performed first with the votes from San Diego car type U2.
Culture and sights
The best known event in the city is the harvest festival, which takes place since 1936 in the summer and early fall of each year for three months. The festivities reach their peak in March, when the amphitheater of Mendoza held music and dance events and a wine queen of the candidates of the various departments of the province is selected.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Martín Alund, tennis players
- Luis Artime, football player
- Antonio di Benedetto, writer
- Alberto Calderón, mathematicians
- Neri Cardozo, football player
- Enrique Dussel, philosopher, historian, theologian
- Hugo Fregonese, director
- Susy Leiva, tango singer
- Julio Le Parc, artist
- Leo Marini, singer
- Jorge Marziali, Cantautor
- Enzo Pérez, football player
- Diego Pozo, football player
- Quino, cartoonist
- Mario Rodríguez Cobos, writer (pseudonym silo)
Twinning
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