Valparaiso is Chile’s most important seaport and an increasingly vital cultural center. The city is located in central Chile, where it is capital of the Region of Valparaiso. Although Santiago is Chile's official capital, Valparaiso houses the National Congress. Built upon dozens of steep hillsides overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Valparaiso boasts a labyrinth of streets and cobblestone alleyways, embodying a rich architectural and cultural legacy. Valparaiso is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is often considered to be one of Latin America’s most intriguing urban areas. Valparaiso like most of Chile is vulnerable to earthquakes. The last major earthquake to strike the city directly was in 1906 which devastated the city and killed nearly 20,000 people.

In 2003, the Chilean Congress declared Valparaiso to be “Chile’s Cultural Capital” and home for the nation’s new cultural ministry. Although technically only Chile’s 6th largest city, with an urban area population of 263,499 (275,982 in municipalityInstituto Nacional de Estadisticas, Censos 2002, accessed 10 July 2007), the Greater Valparaiso metropolitan area, including the neighboring resort city of Vina del Mar, is the second largest in the country (803,683 inhabitants).

Valparaiso played an important geopolitical role in the second half of the 19th century, when the city served as a major stopover for ships traveling between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by crossing the Straits of Magellan. Always a magnet for European immigrants, Valparaiso mushroomed during its golden age, when the city was known by international sailors as “Little San Francisco” or “The Jewel of the Pacific.”

Examples of Valparaiso’s former glory include Latin America’s oldest stock exchange, the continent’s first volunteer fire department, Chile’s first public library, and the oldest Spanish language newspaper in continuous publication in the world. The opening of the Panama Canal and reduction in ship traffic dealt a staggering blow to Valparaiso, though the city has staged an impressive renaissance in recent years.

Valparaiso is located in central Chile, 120 km (74 miles) to the northwest of the capital Santiago. The city is an important educational centre with nine universities. Major industries include tourism, culture, and transport. Valparaiso stages a major festival attended by hundreds of thousands of participants on the last three days of every year. The festival culminates with a “New Year’s by the Sea” fireworks show, the biggest in all of Latin America, attended by a million tourists who fill the coastline and hillsides with a view of the bay.

Approximately 50 international cruise ships call on Valparaiso during the 4-month Chilean summer. The port of Valparaiso is also an important hub for shipping of container freight, and exports of wine, copper, and fresh fruit.

Travel between Valparaiso and Santiago currently takes some 70 minutes on a state-of-the-art toll road.

The Chilean Congress meets in a modern building in the Almendral section of Valparaiso, after relocation from Santiago during the last years of the military rule of general Augusto Pinochet. Although congressional activities were to be legally moved by a ruling in 1987, the newly built site only began to function as the seat of Congress during the democratically-elected government of Patricio Aylwin, who followed Pinochet, in 1990.

The historic quarter of Valparaiso was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.

History

Valparaiso’s bay was first populated by Changos, an ethnic group dedicated to fishing and gathering. Spanish explorers arrived in 1536, on the Santiaguillo, a ship sent by Diego de Almagro, considered the first European explorer of Chile. The Santiaguillo carried men and supplies for Almagro’s expedition, under the command of Juan de Saavedra, who named the town after his native village of Valparaiso de Arriba in Cuenca, Spain.

During Spanish colonial times, Valparaiso remained a small village, with only a few houses and a church. After Chile’s independence from Spain, Valparaiso became the main harbour for the nascent Chilean navy, and opened to international trade, which had been limited to commerce with Spain and its other colonies. Valparaiso soon became a required stopover for ships crossing between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans via the Strait of Magellan and Cape Horn, and gained particular importance supporting and supplying the California Gold Rush (1848-1858). In its role as a major seaport, Valparaiso received immigrants from many european countries, mainly from England, Germany, France, Switzerland and Italy. German, French, Italian and English were commonly spoken among its citizens, who also had newspapers in these same languages.

International immigration transformed the local culture from its Spanish origins. Football (soccer) was introduced to Chile by English immigrants, and the first private catholic school in Chile was founded by French immigrants in Valparaiso: Le Collège de Les Sacres Cœurs (The Sacred Hearts School) which has been operating for about 170 years. Immigrants from England and Germany founded the first private, secular schools, (The MacKay School, and Die Deutsche Schule respectively). Immigrants also formed the first volunteer fire-fighting units (still a volunteer activity in Chile), while architecture reflected various European styles, not just Spanish traditions.

The golden age of Valparaiso’s commerce ended after the opening of the Panama Canal, as most ships sought to avoid the Strait of Magellan, and the port’s importance and use was reduced substantially. Traffic has increased in the last few decades with fruit exports, increasing opening of the Chilean economy to world commerce, and ships that do not fit the Panama Canal.

Today

Though San Antonio, Chile has taken the reigns as the country’s most commercially important seaport, the City of Valparaiso remains a vibrant center of Chilean culture, and the Greater Valparaiso metropolitan area (which includes Valparaiso, Vina del Mar, Quilpue and Villa Alemana) has the second largest concentration of population in the country after greater Santiago.

Nicknamed “The Jewel of the Pacific”, Valparaiso was declared a world heritage site based on its industrial heritage, improvised urban design, and unique architecture. The official Unesco declaration also places exceptional emphasis on Valparaiso’s unique “intangible heritage,” which includes the city’s ethnic heritage as seen through the traditions and life styles of Valparaiso’s immigrant communities.

Immortalized in the words of Pablo Neruda as the ‘Ocean’s sweetheart’ (“novia del oceano”), the city that ‘goes to Paradise’ ("Va al paraiso") is one of Chile’s —if not South America’s— most charismatic and historic ports, with its charming “ascensores” (funiculars) and colorful hillside houses. Valparaiso’s road infrastructure is under substantial improvement at present, particularly with the completion of the “Curauma — Placilla — La Polvora” freeway bypass, which allows trucks to go directly to the port facility over a modern highway and through tunnels, without driving through the historic and already congested downtown streets. In addition, roads to link Valparaiso to San Antonio, Chile’s second largest port, and the coastal towns in between (Laguna Verde, Quintay, Algarrobo, and Isla Negra, for example), are also under various degrees of completion.

A new, regional Metro system, opened to the public on 24 November 2005, updated parts of the railroad that joined Santiago and Valparaiso (and cities in between, finished in 1863). The new metro constitutes the so-called “fourth stage” (“Cuarta Etapa” in Spanish) of Metropolitan improvements. The metro railway extends along most of Gran Valparaiso and is the second metro system in operation in Chile (after Santiago’s), and includes an underground section that crosses Vina del Mar’s downtown.

Image:Trole 2.jpg|Trolleybus Image:Ascensor Artilleria in Valparaiso.jpg| Artillery Funicular Image:McDonalds. Valparaiso, Chile.jpg|McDonalds in Valparaiso Image:Metro valpo.jpg|Tube station in Valparaiso Image:Esmeralda 2.jpg|Esmeralda Naval training Ship Image:Santiago in vogelvlucht-p1906-153.jpg|Valparaiso in 1906 Image:Inacap Valparaiso.jpg|Inacap of Valparaiso Image:Casacentralpucv.JPG|Catholic university of Valparaiso Image:Utfsm.jpg|Technical university Federico Santa Maria Image:Valparaiso view from La Sebastiana.jpg|view from La Sebastiana Image:Valpotren.jpg|Metro Valparaiso Image:Valparaiso strasse.jpg|buildings in Valparaiso Image:Valpo3.JPG|El Mercurio de Valparaiso

Culture

During Valparaiso’s golden age (1848-1914) the city received large numbers of immigrants, primarily from Europe. The immigrant communities left a unique imprint on the city’s architecture. Each community built its own churches and schools, while many also founded other noteworthy cultural and economic institutions. The largest immigrant communities came from England, Germany, and Italy, each developing their own hillside neighborhood, preserved today as National Historic Districts or “Zonas Tipicas.”

During the second half of the twentieth century, Valparaiso experienced a great decline, as wealthy families de-gentrified the historic quarter, moving to bustling Santiago or nearby Vina del Mar. By the early 1990s, much of the city’s unique heritage had been lost and many Chileans had given up on the city. But in the mid 1990s, a grass roots preservation movement blossomed in Valparaiso.

In 1996, the World Monuments Fund declared Valparaiso’s unusual system of funicular elevators (highly-inclined cable cars) one of the world’s 100 most endangered historical treasures. In 1998, grassroots activists convinced the Chilean government and local authorities to apply for UNESCO world heritage status for Valparaiso.

One such activist group was the “Fundacion Valparaiso” or Valparaiso Foundation, founded by a contemporary North American Poet, Todd Temkin, who fell in love with the city while teaching literature at the Catholic University of Valparaiso. The Valparaiso Foundation has executed major neighborhood redevelopment projects; has improved the city’s tourist infrastructure; and administers the city’s jazz, ethnic music, and opera festivals; among other projects.

Some noteworthy foundation projects include: “The World Heritage Trail”;“Opera by the Sea”; and Chile’s “Cultural Capital”.

Valparaiso was declared a World Heritage Site in 2003, thanks to its historical importance, natural beauty (large number of hills surrounding a picturesque harbor), and unique architecture (particularly, a mix of 19th century styles of housing).

Valparaiso’s newspaper, “El Mercurio de Valparaiso”, is the oldest Spanish-language newspaper in circulation in the world.

“Fundacion Renzo Pecchenino, LUKAS” maintains the drawings and paintings of the artist/cartoonist who came to symbolize Valparaiso in popular culture, in a newly restored building on Cerro Concepcion, overlooking the bay.

Valparaiso is also home to the so called “School of Valparaiso”, which is in fact the Faculty of Architecture & Urbanism of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso. The “School of Valparaiso” is one of the most experimental, avantgarde and controversial Architectural schools in the country.

The city has the third largest concentration of universities in Chile, and is home to four major universities:

Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso
Universidad de Valparaiso
Universidad de Playa Ancha

Valparaiso is the birthplace of many historically significant figures, including Augusto Pinochet, Salvador Allende, Roberto Ampuero, author of the internationally published novels about the private eye Cayetano Brule and "Hijo Ilustre" of Valparaiso, and Australia’s third Prime Minister John Christian Watson among them. It has also been the residence of many artists like Pablo Neruda and Nicaraguan poet Ruben Dario.

Nightlife activities in Valparaiso are claimed to be among the best in the country. Sailors favor the harbor sector because of the various traditional bars, among them, “Bar La Playa”, “La Piedra Feliz,” and “El Bar Ingles”, which can be found near Plaza Sotomayor. University students now meet at a number of local nightclubs, bars, and discotheques. A vivid guide to Valparaiso can be found in the novels of Cayetano Brule, the private detective who lives in a Victorian house, in the picturesque Paseo Gervasoni, on Cerro Concepcion.

Sports

“Valparaiso Downhill” is a new mountain bike race that takes place in February, and that has bicycle racers compete down stairs and alleys, going from the surrounding hills down to the "plan" (Valparaiso's "lowlands").

Valparaiso Maraton Bicentenario is an international marathon, that travels through tourist areas in and around Valparaiso. September 24 2006, saw the first running, over two distances: 10 km and 21 km, in 12 categories, for male and female runners. The race started at Plaza Sotomayor, and the course then crossed diverse architectural and geographical landmarks.