Mendoza, Argentina


Mendoza, officially the City of Mendoza is the capital of the province of Mendoza in Argentina. It is located in the northern-central part of the province, in a region of foothills and high plains, on the eastern side of the Andes. As of the, Mendoza had a population of 115,041 with a metropolitan population of 1,055,679, making Greater Mendoza the fourth largest census metropolitan area in the country.
Ruta Nacional 7, the major road running between Buenos Aires and Santiago, runs through Mendoza. The city is a frequent stopover for climbers on their way to Aconcagua and for adventure travelers interested in mountaineering, hiking, horse riding, rafting, and other sports. In the winter, skiers come to the city for easy access to the Andes.
Two of the main industries of the Mendoza area are olive oil production and Argentine wine. The region around Greater Mendoza is the largest wine-producing area in South America. As such, Mendoza is one of the nine Great Wine Capitals, and the city is an emerging enotourism destination and base for exploring the region's hundreds of wineries located along the Argentina Wine Route.

History

On March 2, 1561, Pedro del Castillo founded the city and named it Ciudad de Mendoza del Nuevo Valle de La Rioja after the governor of Chile, Don García Hurtado de Mendoza. Before the 1560s the area was populated by tribes known as the Huarpes and Puelches. The Huarpes devised a system of irrigation that was later developed by the Spanish. This allowed for an increase in population that might not have otherwise occurred. The system is still evident today in the wide trenches, which run along all city streets, watering the approximately 100,000 trees that line every street in Mendoza.It is estimated that fewer than 80 Spanish settlers lived in the area before 1600, but later prosperity increased due to the use of indigenous and slave labor, and the Jesuit presence in the region. When nearby rivers were tapped as a source of irrigation in 1788 agricultural production increased. The extra revenues generated from this, and the ensuing additional trade with Buenos Aires, no doubt led to the creation of the state of Cuyo in 1813 with José de San Martín as governor. It was from Mendoza that San Martín and other Argentinian and Chilean patriots organized the army with which they won the independence of Chile and Peru.
Mendoza suffered a severe earthquake in 1861 that killed at least 5,000 people. The city was rebuilt, incorporating innovative urban designs that would better tolerate such seismic activity. Mendoza was rebuilt with large squares and wider streets and sidewalks than any other city in Argentina. Avenue Bartolomé Mitre and additional small squares are examples of that design. Tourism, wine production, and more recently the exploitation of hard commodities such as oil and uranium ensure Mendoza's status as a key regional center.
Important suburbs such as Godoy Cruz, Guaymallén, Las Heras, Luján de Cuyo and Maipú have in recent decades far outpaced the city proper in population. Comprising half the metro population of 212,000 in 1947, these suburbs grew to nearly ⅞ of the total metro area of over 1,000,000 by 2015, making Mendoza the most dispersed metro area in Argentina.

Culture

Mendoza has several museums, including the Museo Cornelio Moyano, a natural history museum, and the Museo del Área Fundacional on Pedro del Castillo Square. The Museo Nacional del Vino, focusing on the history of winemaking in the area, is southeast of Mendoza in Maipú. The Casa de Fader, a historic house museum, is an 1890 mansion once home to artist Fernando Fader in nearby Mayor Drummond, south of Mendoza. The mansion is home to many of the artist's paintings.
The Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia occurs in early March each year. Part of the festivities include a beauty pageant, where 17 beauty queens from each department of Mendoza Province compete, and one winner is selected by a panel of about 50 judges. The queen of Mendoza city's department does not compete and acts as host for the other queens.
In 2008, National Geographic listed Mendoza as one of the top 10 historic destinations in the world.

Urban structure

The city is centered around Plaza Independencia with Avenida Sarmiento running through its center east–west, with the east side pedestrianized. Other major streets, running perpendicular to Sarmiento, include Bartolomé Mitre, San Martín, and 9 de Julio, those running parallel include Colón, and Las Heras. Four smaller plazas, San Martín, Chile, Italia, and España, are located 2 blocks off each corner of Independence Plaza. Unique to Mendoza are the exposed stone ditches, essentially small canals, which run alongside many of the roads supplying water to the thousands of trees.
The Parque General San Martín was designed by Carlos Thays. Its grounds include the Mendoza Zoological Park and a football stadium, and it is also the home of the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. A view of the city is available from the top of Cerro de la Gloria.

Education

Mendoza has a number of universities, including the major Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, as well as University of Mendoza, a branch of Universidad Congreso, Aconcagua University, UTN and Champagnat University.
Mendoza is a popular place to learn Spanish, and there are a number of Spanish language schools, including Intercultural, Green Fields and SIMA.

Transportation

Mendoza is from Buenos Aires and from Santiago, Chile. Gov. Francisco Gabrielli International Airport serves Mendoza, with flights to/from Buenos Aires taking less than 2 hours and less than 1 hour to/from Santiago.
The public transport system includes buses, the Mendoza trolleybus system, and taxis. The trolleybuses are more comfortable than the diesel buses, but are slower, not as numerous nor is the system as extensive. In 2008, TransLink of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, sold most of its old trolleybus fleet to Mendoza.
A heritage railway, El Tren del Vino, is being planned which will also provide local transportation; it will run through wine-producing districts of Mendoza.

Metrotranvía

A new light rail line, the Metrotranvía Mendoza, opened for regular service in October 2012. and serves five areas of the Greater Mendoza conurbation. The line runs from south to Maipú. The bright red railcars, Siemens-Duewag U2s, were purchased from the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System of San Diego, California, USA in 2010. They were built in 1980.

Transandine Railway

Mendoza's development was helped partly due to its position at the start of the Transandine Railway linking it to Santa Rosa de Los Andes in Chile. The only railway operable between Argentina and Chile, after many years of inactivity, it remains currently abandoned.
The Transandine Railway is a line, with sections of Abt rack, whilst the railways it links with are both broad gauge. A journey from Buenos Aires to Chile involved two breaks-of-gauge, and therefore two changes of train, one at Mendoza, and the other at Santa Rosa de Los Andes.

Wine industry

Argentina's Malbec wines originate from Mendoza's high-altitude wine regions of Lujan de Cuyo and the Uco Valley. These districts are located in the foothills of the Andes mountains between 2,800 and 5,000 feet elevation.
Vintner Nicolas Catena Zapata is considered the pioneer of high-altitude growing and was the first, in 1994, to plant a malbec vineyard at 5,000 feet above sea level in the Mendoza region. His family is also credited with making world-class wines and giving status to the wines of Argentina.
The subject of elevation is of much interest to the wine world because with increased altitude, the intensity of the sunlight increases. The role of this increased light intensity is currently being investigated by Catena Zapata's research and development department headed up by Laura Catena, Alejandro Vigil and Fernando Buscema.

In film

Seven Years in Tibet, directed by French director Jean-Jacques Annaud, was shot in and around Mendoza. Several dozens of sets were built, ranging from a long recreation of the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa, to a recreation of the Hall of Good Deeds in the Potala, the ancient palace of the Dalai Lama.

Climate

Mendoza's climate is characterized as an arid ; with continental characteristics. Most precipitation in Mendoza falls in the summer months. Summers are hot and humid where mean temperatures can exceed. Average temperatures for January are during daytime, and at night. Winters are cold and dry with mean temperatures below. Night time temperatures can occasionally fall below freezing during the winter. Because winters are dry with little precipitation, snowfall is uncommon, occurring once per year. July the average temperatures are and, day and night respectively. Mendoza's annual rainfall is only, so extensive farming is made possible by irrigation from major rivers. The highest temperature recorded was on January 30, 2003 while the lowest temperature recorded was on July 10, 1976.

Sports

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The city boasts at least two significant football clubs—Independiente Rivadavia and Gimnasia y Esgrima de Mendoza, although neither currently plays in the Primera División. A club from the nearby city of Godoy Cruz, Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba, is currently in the Primera.
International rugby test matches featuring the Argentina national rugby team have also been held in Mendoza.

People

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International relations

Mendoza is twinned with: