Description
CHILE – VALPARAÍSO / VALPARAÍSO’S PRE-EARTHQUAKE ‘GOLDEN AGE’ / LATIN AMERICAN URBANISM:
Ever since its founding in 1536, Valparaíso, located only 120 km northwest of Santiago, has been the primary port of Chile, the gateway to the Chilean Central Valley. However, for much of its first three centuries, it remained a small town, being not much more than a transport depot. While located upon a bay that provided a good natural harbour, its growth was limited by that fact that only a narrow strip of flat land lined the shore, before the topography rose into steep hills.
Valparaíso’s was utterly transformed during the 19th century. In 1817, it became the headquarters the Chilean Navy (and Chile had what was generally regarded as the strongest navy in Latin America), bringing much investment and activity. Between 1810 and 1830, the first major phase of land reclamation expanded the area of flat land, moving the urban area five blocks forward into the harbour, such that there was now territory sufficient to host a major urban core.
During the California Gold Rush (1848-58), Valparaíso first attained global prominence as a revictualing centre for ships traversing the Straits of Magellan and rounding Cape Horn on the way to San Francisco (indeed, many Chileans went to California goldfields). The city’s role as the most important stop on this key shipping lane endured, and the city developed a cosmopolitan atmosphere, upon the arrival of thousands of European and American immigrants (mainly from Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland). Various tongues were commonly heard on the streets, and newspapers were published in several languages.
By the 1860s, Valparaíso was one of the wealthiest and most bustling ports in all the Americas, and due to its cold summer Mediterranean climate, hilly topography on the shores of the Pacific and its economic vigour, Valparaíso was often dubbed the “Little San Francisco”. Legacies of its golden age include Latin America’s oldest stock exchange, Chile’s first public library, and the country’s first telephone service.
Grand public buildings of various international styles graced its core, while tycoons’ mansions kept watch from the surrounding hills. Notably, Valparaíso’s large and wealthy British community, La Colonia Britanica, occupied the Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepción, above the westside of the harbour (generally, one will notice the many English names of streets and businesses on the map).
The city received a major boost upon the completion of the 187 km-long Santiago-Valparaíso railway in 1863.
In the 1890s, when the present map was made, Valparaíso was undertaking major urban improvement projects, by widening avenues, creating parks, building public institutions, and extending street lighting and the tram system. In many respects it was the most modern and best governed cities in Latin America, comparing favourably to even the best American and European urban areas.
However, the early 20th century would bring great misfortune to Valparaíso. On August 16, 1906, much of the city’s downtown (particularly the east side) was levelled by a massive earthquake (just over four months after the Great San Francisco Earthquake). The tragedy costed 3,000 lives and left dozens of urban blocks in complete ruins, while many of the grand public edifices were either totalled or heavily damaged.
The inauguration of the Panama Canal in 1915, saw Valparaíso loose most of its international shipping traffic, placing a permanent damper on the economy. While the city and its port were tastefully rebuilt, on more modern lines, between 1910 and 1930, Valparaíso never fully regained its former glory. As Chile’s main port, Valparaíso simply ‘carried on’ for the rest of the 20th century; however, the last 20 years or so have seen a revival of the city’s fortunes, as people the world over have been attracted to invest, live and visit, due to its lovely location and vibrant, bohemian culture.
The Map in Focus
The large and colourfully lithographed map embraces all Valparaíso proper and was published for the venerable local bookstore La Librería del Mercurio in the early 1890s, during the height of the city’s golden age. Capturing Valparaíso from a roughly south-westerly perspective, with the harbour curving along the shores of the bay, the downtown core, built on a rational grided street plan occupies the relatively narrow area of flat land (much of it reclaimed) near the sea. On all the landward sides, steep hills, or named ‘cerros’, separated by ‘quebradas’ (ravines), are climbed by curving roads, with some hosting distinct neighborhoods. The city is shown to be divided (by red lines) into 5 ‘Comunes’ (like wards), and 22 resplendently colour-coded and numbered sub-delegations (like barrios, or neighbourhoods). Al streets are labelled, as is the Santiago-Valparaíso Railway, which can be seen entering the city, in the lower right. The inset, upper right, shows the continuation of the scene to the west, being the Playa Las Torpedera area.
While some very large features/facilities are labelled directly on the map, such as the Campo de Marte (today the Regional Stadium), most places of interest are identified by numbers, as explained in the ‘Referencia’, on the lefthand side, which list 73 locations. Some highlights include 1. Naval Academy, 9. Police HQ, 12. City Hall, 16. Post Office, 20. Stock Exchange, 22. Hotel Ingles, 26. Banco de Chile, 27. Banco A. Edwards y Ca., 46. Odeon Theatre, 51. Masonic Lodge, 60. Museum, 63. American School, 71. Hospital, 73. Main Train Station (Estación Barón). Also, all the city’s many ‘Imprentas’, or print shops, are located, including the ‘La Librería del Mercurio’ (no. 36).
The map, being a commercial venture, features a large advertisement, filling the waters of the bay of Valparaíso, for ‘Té de Rogers / La Estrella Blanca’ that sold much more than tea, including Port, Jerez, Cognac and many other types of liquors. In the upper is an advertisement for the ‘Librería del Mercurio’.
The map is undated, but clues suggest that it was published in 1893, or closely thereabouts. It shows the ‘Gran Avenida’, a broad thoroughfare that runs along much of the length of the harbour, just a block inland from the Nuevo Malecón, which was one of the city’s most ambitious new beatification projects. Construction was commenced in 1890, progressively clearing away what were mostly shabby port buildings, and which was intended to run from the Calle de las Delicias and the main train station (Estación Barón) over to Calle Bellavista. Construction commenced from the east (Delicias) side, with buildings being progressively cleared towards the west, and it recorded that the final (western) section of the avenue, between Calle Rodríguez and Bellavista, was completed on September 17, 1895. The thoroughfare was renamed ‘Avenida Brasil’ on May 7, 1897, in honour of Chile’s greatest South American ally.
The present map shows the progress of the construction of the Gran Avenida to be in an intermediate state, reaching only as far west as the Calle de Molina, a stage that was reached probably sometime in 1893.
For comparison, the Plano de Valparaíso (Santiago: Litografía Gustavo Schäfer, 1894) shows the Gran Avenida to be significantly more developed, please see this link:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EPEm_gvWkAMWvoD?format=jpg&name=4096×4096
The publisher of the map, La Librería del Mercurio, was the bookstore division of the newspaper El Mercurio de Valparaíso, which having published its first edition on September 17, 1827, today has the distinction of being the oldest continually operating Spanish-language newspaper in the world! Established by a trio of typographers, Tomás G. Wells (an American), Ignacio Silva Medina and Pedro Félix Vicuña Aguirre, it switched from running weekly to daily issues in 1829. El Mercurio became an anchor of the political, commercial and cultural life of Valparaíso and the surrounding region, known for its strong liberal, pro-democracy editorial bent. Its bookstore, La Librería del Mercurio, located on the same street (Calle Esmeralda) as the newspaper office (no. 35 on the map) was a major centre for intellectuals, educators and tourists, selling stationary and importing books from abroad, while publishing important works on the Valparaíso area (such as the present map). In due course, a branch to La Librería was opened in Santiago. In 1902, the El Mercurio newspaper built a very grand Second Empire style edifice as its headquarters on its traditional site on Calle Esmeralda, which stills stands today.
The map, while designed and made at the behest of La Librería del Mercurio was printed by the press of the Litografía Excelsior de R. Abrines y Ca., as it was often more cost effective to subcontract such large format colourful graphic works to smaller houses. Litografía Excelsior is perhaps best known for having published the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío’s Azul – I Cuentos en Prosa II El año lírico (1888), a landmark work of the modernismo literary movement.
A Note on Rarity: The Only Known Example
The map extremely rare, and the present offering seems to be the only known example.
Despite a thorough online search, we have not been able to find any references to the map, which may be unrecorded. It is, however, possible that it is mentioned in one of the Librería del Mercurio’s annual sales catalogues for the period, Catálogo de las obras de fondo de la Librería del Mercurio de Valparaíso y que se encuentran constantemente a venta con notables descuentos al por mayor en la Casa principal de Valparaíso (Valparaíso: Impr. de la Libr. del Mercurio), of which the Biblioteca Nacional de Chile holds examples for the years 1894 and 1896. As we have not been able to consult these sources, we cannot confirm whether they reference the map.
The map’s rarity is not so surprising, as the survival rate of such large format, separately published 19th Latin American city plans is very low.
References: N/A – no references traced, perhaps unrecorded. Cf. Catálogo de las obras de fondo de la Librería del Mercurio de Valparaíso y que se encuentran constantemente a venta con notables descuentos al por mayor en la Casa principal de Valparaíso (Valparaíso: Impr. de la Libr. del Mercurio, [see issues for 1894 and 1896]).
