Mendoza is a city in the west of Argentina, and the capital of Mendoza Province. As per the it has about 111,000 inhabitants, plus 848.660 in its metropolitan area, making it the fourth-largest conurbation in Argentina.

Mendoza is on a major road between Argentina and Chile. It is a frequent stopover for climbers heading up Aconcagua (the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere) or for other mountaineering, hiking, horseback riding, rafting, and outdoor activities. In the winter, skiers come to the city for its easy access to the Andes.

One of the main industries of the Mendoza area is wine making. Another large industry is olive oil production.

History

Mendoza was founded in 1561 by Pedro del Castillo. Here Jose de San Martin organized the army with which he won the independence of Chile and Peru.

In 1861 a severe earthquake destroyed the city and killed at least 5,000 people. The city was rebuilt, and included new antiseismic urban designs, with large squares and wider streets and sidewalks than any other city in Argentina. San Martin street, and five main equidistant squares, are examples of that design.

Culture

The grape harvest is marked each year by the Vendimia festival, taking place in early March, in which 17 beauty queens (one for each provincial departament) are nominated, and one winner is selected by a panel of about 50 judges. The queen from Mendoza City cannot be chosen because she acts as host for all other queens. Mendoza City proper does not have vineyards.

Mendoza has an intense cultural activity, and the city is a main center for professional congresses and meetings. There are several museums, the main ones being the Museo Cornelio Moyano (a natural history museum) and the Museo del Area Fundacional (Foundation Area Museum, historical). In Maipu, 15 km southeast from Mendoza, there is the Museo Nacional del Vino (National Wine Museum), which focuses on the history of winemaking in the area. In Mayor Drummond, 14 km south from Mendoza, there is the Emiliano Guinazu - Casa de Fader art museum, hosted in an 1890 mansion where many walls have paintings by the artist Fernando Fader.

Urban structure

Like most cities in Argentina, Mendoza's outdoor cafes, tree-lined walkable streets & avenues and many plazas attest to the city's European heritage. Unique to other large cities in Argentina is the exposed stone ditches (small canals) which run alongside many of the roads supplying water to the many trees that provide welcome shade.

The city is centered around the Plaza Independencia with pedestrianized Sarmiento street running through its center. Other major streets, running perpendicular to Sarmiento, are 9 de Julio St., San Martin Avenue, and running parallel to Sarmiento are avenues Colon, Aristides Villanueva and Las Heras. Many small parks, known as "plazas" are spread within the city. Three of these are Plaza Espana, Plaza Independencia and Plaza Fundacional.

Located West of the city is the Parque San Martin designed by the world renowned landscape architect Carlos Thays. On its premises you can find soccer stadiums, a zoo, the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo and a monument that commemorates the cross of the Andes by San Martin and his army. A view of the city is available from the top of the hill "Cerro de la Gloria".

There are many Internet cafes and other establishments that offer wi-fi technology. Restaurants and wine bars on Aristides Villanueva Avenue become very active day and night during weekends and various types of accommodations are available including luxurious “five star” Park Hyatt Mendoza, facing Plaza Independencia.

Climate

Mendoza has very dry summers with wetter winters. Average temperatures for January (summer) are 35 °C (95 °F) during daytime, and 23 °C (73 °F) at night. For July (winter), the average temperatures are 12 °C (53 °F) and 3 °C (38 °F), respectively.

Transportation

Mendoza is 1,037 kilometres from Buenos Aires (14 hours by bus) and 380 kilometres from Santiago, Chile (6 hours by bus). Mendoza also has an International Airport. It takes less than 2 hours to fly from Buenos Aires and less than 1 hour from Santiago, Chile.

The Mendoza public transport system includes buses, trolleybuses and taxi-cabs. The trolleybuses are more comfortable than the city buses, but are slower and not as widespread.

Transandine Railway

Mendoza developed partly because of its position at the beginning of the Transandine Railway linking it to Los Andes in Chile. This line is currently out of use, but there are plans to restore it in summer 2007.

The Transandine Railway is a metre gauge line, with sections of rack, whilst the railways it links are both broad gauge. A journey from Buenos Aires to Chile involved a break-of-gauge, and therefore a change of train, at Mendoza.

People

See

Twin cities

Strasbourg, France
Kassel, Germany
Weinheim, Germany
Finchley, London, UK
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Barnet, London, UK
Wrocław, Poland
Szombathely, Hungary
Ramat Gan, Israel
San Isidro, Lima, Peru

In Film

Mendoza is referenced in the 2006 acclaimed film Children of Men in which it is reported that the parents of the youngest person on the planet hail from the city of Mendoza in a bleak 2027.

Throughout his career, the French director Jean-Jacques Annaud has prided himself on ambitious films that focus on the human heart in conflict with itself. But none compares to the scope and challenge of his 1997 film Seven Years In Tibet.To re-capture the experience, Annaud literally rebuilt Tibet in Argentina. The dozens of spectacular sets ranged from a 220-yard long re-creation of the capital city of Lhasa (built in the foothills of the Andes), to a 9000-square-foot re-creation of the legendary Hall of Good Deeds in the Potala, the ancient palace of the Dalai Lama. (It was built in an abandoned garlic warehouse outside the city of Mendoza.)

References

In Spanish.

Municipality of Mendoza - Official website.
Tourism office

Publications

V. Letelier, Apuntes sobre el terremoto de Mendoza (Santiago de Chile, 1907)
V. Blasco Ibanez, Argentina y sus Grandezas (Madrid, 1910)

Other pages about Capitals of Argentine provinces

-Cordoba, Argentina -Corrientes -Formosa, Argentina -La Plata -La Rioja, Argentina -Mendoza, Argentina -Neuquen, Argentina -Parana, Entre Rios -Posadas, Misiones -Rawson, Chubut -Resistencia, Chaco -Rio Gallegos, Santa Cruz -Salta -San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca -San Juan, Argentina -San Luis, Argentina -San Salvador de Jujuy -Santa Fe, Argentina -Santa Rosa, La Pampa -Santiago del Estero -Tucuman -Ushuaia -Viedma, Rio Negro

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Mendoza,_Argentina

Mendoza