Viña del Mar

Before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores, the inhabitants of central Chile were an indigenous people known as the Changos, who called the area now occupied by Viña del Mar peuco, which meant, “here there is water. With the coming of the Europeans, the land was transformed and by 1580 the whole area had become an encomienda, or estate granted to a conquistador. Vineyards were planted here, hence the name Viña del Mar, "vines by the sea."

A century later, these same lands were divided into two: south of the Marga-Marga estuary up to Barón Hill was known as “The Homestead of the Seven Sisters, while the area northwards, all the way to Concón, retained the original name.

The following century saw many rich Portuguese merchants sailing into the bay of Valparaíso. One of these was Francisco �lvares, who was so enchanted by this new land that he bought it, installing his estate house in the area that is now the Quinta Vergara park. His wife, Dolores Pérez, was a great lover of plants and transformed the surrounding countryside with gardens and orchards. In the mid-nineteenth century, these were greatly added to by their son who brought back new species from his voyages in Australia and the Far East.

Such pastoral pursuits were probably less important for the development of the city, however, than another event that took place during the same period, the arrival of the railway linking Valparaiso to the central valley region. With this new communication, the city grew rapidly and prospered, building the Viña del Mar train station. Meanwhile, José Francisco Vergara Etchevers, the assistant engineer on the project and by marriage a large landowner in the city, went on to help develop the town in many other ways. He ceded lands to be used for the water supply, a school, the cemetery and a slaughterhouse. He sold the property along the tracks which later became �lvares and Viana Streets and put up mansions that looked on to the present-day Avenida Valparaíso. Vergara later moved on to politics, becoming the Minister of the Interior in the government of Domingo Santa María and War Minister under Aníbal Pinto. He also fought in the War of the Pacific.

The railway had a profound effect on the city. The doctor Teodoro Von Scroeders encouraged the building of a new station to give people access to thermal baths nearby. Shroeders also planned the development of the Castillo Hill neighborhood. Along the train route, ever more neighborhoods were springing up, including Recreo in 1894, whose name, Spanish for recreation, alludes to the custom of local inhabitants of passing their leisure time looking out at the sea. Around this period two city dignitaries by the names of Luis Barros Borgoño and Alfredo Azancot (architects responsible for the Rioja and Carrasco Palaces), undertook the redevelopment of the Recreo shoreline, filling in the original reefs and replacing them with a beach and creating one of the most popular resorts along the coastline.