Capital de la Región de La Araucanía, situada a orillas del río Cautín. Rodeada de la cerros Ñielol y Conún Huenu. Importante centro administrativo, comercial, universitario y cultural. Fue fundada el 24 de febrero de 1881 por don Manuel Recabarren. Su origen fue un fortín de quinchas y un foso destinado a contener la belicosidad de los Mapuches. En torno a él se formó una población que acogió y amalgamó nacionalidades diversas. Cuenta con una población, según (censo 1992), de 197. 236 habitantes y se ubica entre las ciudades más importantes y progresistas del país. Su moderna infraestructura, con interesante arquitectura contemporánea, centros comerciales y grandes malls, la definen como la región más importante de la zona centro sur. Algunos de los principales centros de interés de esta ciudad son: la Plaza de Armas Aníbal Pinto, una moderna obra proyectada como centro de interés turístico, destacándose el Monumento a la Araucanía y sus fuentes de agua. Rodeando esta hermosa área verde se encuentran construcciones de envergadura. El Mercado Municipal, un lugar de visita obligado, constituye un centro de gastronomía típica y criolla, ofreciendo además gran variedad de productos de artesanía regional. Destaca el Museo Regional de La Araucanía, que posee una variada muestra de la cultura mapuche y de la colonización
Foundation
On February 24th 1881, the Fort of Temuco was founded in the banks of the Cautín River by Mr. Manuel Recabarren. Quickly, it went through a transition to a town and then to a city. In 1883, the first colonizers arrived, who until 1894, reached up to 7,000 people. They were from nine different countries and were distributed along the provinces of Malleco and Cautín. Before 15 years since its foundation, the railway was already operating in Temuco.
Nowadays, Temuco is an important administrative, commercial, university, tourist and cultural center that has all the necessary structures to become one of the most prosperous cities of the country.
Temuco is one of the youngest cities in Chile; with less than 200 years of history, it is located in the fourth position of the main centers of urban growth in the country.
It is the capital city of La Araucanía Region and also a beautiful and booming city that holds most of the administrative, industrial and commercial activities in the region.
It is located opposite the land located between the Cautín and the Toltén rivers, a place that was the beating, brave and most populated heart of the Mapuche people.
Pedro de Valdivia was the person who discovered this land. He, amazed at the view of the small hills and places cleared of forests where a sedentary Mapuche community cultivated the land and grazed llamas, stated that “nothing in the whole world compared to this place” in one of his letters.
In 1552, at the banks of the Cautín River, Pedro de Valdivia founded the Imperial City in honor of Charles V. It was located 55 km from Temuco to the coast (where Carahue is located today) in the confluence of the Cautín and Las Damas rivers. Pedro de Valdivia named the last one because of the young Mapuche girls performing their personal cleanliness that he saw there.
The Imperial City reached to be the most prosperous in Chile during the Spanish Conquest. This place was completely free during 282 years. Between 1881and 1882, in the middle of The Pacific War and when the railway already went all the way to San Rosendo in the Bio Bío Region, the government decided to put an end to the lack of continuity in the territory in Chile. The Army of La Frontera advanced on the south, founding forts as far as the Toltén River that through the years became the foundations of towns and cities.