Ñuflo de Chaves

Ñuflo de Chávez, also: Ñuflo de Chaves (* 1518 in Trujillo, Spain, † 1568 in present-day Bolivia), was a Spanish Conquistador. He is best known as the founder of the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

Ñuflo de Chávez came from the village of Santa Cruz de la Sierra ( " Holy Cross of the mountains" ), about 12 km south of Trujillo in the Spanish Extremadura.

Even as a young man he was an officer and conquistador to South America. In 1544 he assisted in Asunción ( Paraguay today ) the successful coup d'etat against the Spanish Governor Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca by his deputy Domingo Martínez de Irala. In 1557 it reached as a conqueror the territory of today's Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, where he probable gold reserves.

In 1561 he founded with a Siedlerzug on the southern edge of the Amazon basin in what is now the Bolivian department of Santa Cruz, the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, which he named and where he settled after his Spanish home village with his family. Ñuflo de Chávez led the first European sheep and goats in the region.

Ñuflo de Chávez died in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in a dispute with Native Americans. Due to the ongoing conflict with the natives of the site was later abandoned and moved to the city about 220 km to the west; today is in the vicinity of the original settlement site, the Jesuit Mission San José de Chiquitos, founded in the 18th century.

The Ñuflo de Chávez province in the Bolivian department of Santa Cruz wears its name in honor of the town's founder.

• Conquistador
• Spaniard
• Born in 1518
• Died in 1568
• Man