Estrella Polar

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Coordinates: 62 ° 11 ′ 36 "  S , 58 ° 58 ′ 54"  W

Map: Antarctica
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Estrella Polar​
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Antarctic

The Hotel Estrella Polar was the only hotel in Antarctica so far and was located on King George Island , near the hangar of the Chilean military base Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva Station ( Base Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva , formerly Base Teniente Rodolfo Marsh ).

The hotel was built around 1980 and had 80 beds. However, the hotel has not been in operation since 1992. Almost 15,000 Antarctic tourists are recorded annually (as of the 2002/2003 season), but in the area of ​​southern King George Island there are only a few hundred landings per year.

The importance of the hotel is partly political. Its establishment is to be understood in the context of the territorial claims as they are made on the Antarctic peninsula of Chile and Argentina . To further emphasize such claims, which have actually been suspended since the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, members of the military base also live in the nearby settlement of Villa Las Estrellas , around 70 to 80 people, families with children. Children have already been born there and there is also a school for basic education, a post office , a bank and a basic hospital with surgery, also an expression of the fact that the territory is normally inhabited.

The name of the hotel, in German Polarstern, is astonishing as the Polarstern cannot be observed at the location of the hotel, as in the southern hemisphere (more precisely: south of 1 ° S) .

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  • Alan E. Watson, Janet Sproull, Rocky Mountain Research Station (Fort Collins, Colo.): Science and stewardship to project and sustain wilderness values: Seventh World Wilderness Congress symposium, 2001 November 2-8, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. US Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station 2003, p. 205.

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