La Unión (Chile)
Coordinates: 40 ° 18 ′ S , 73 ° 5 ′ W
La Unión (Spanish for 'The Union' ) is a Chilean city in the XIV Región de Los Ríos and the capital of one of its two provinces, the Ranco Province . It is 40 km north of the city of Osorno and 80 km southeast of the regional capital Valdivia . The municipality, with an area of 2136.7 km², has 39,447 inhabitants, 25,615 of them in the actual urban area (according to the data from the 2002 census). The name comes from the geographic features of the area where the rivers Llollelhue and Radimadi meet in the Río Bueno .
history
La Unión was founded during the Bernardo O'Higgins government . The city was planned as the agricultural center of El Llano or Los Llanos to the north of the city of Río Bueno, although it was placed a few kilometers further south. La Unión was / is known for its former breweries, mills (Molinos Grob, Hoppe, Zarges), tanneries , milk production and processing ( Colún ) and the linen industry (Linos La Unión). The bank of Osorno and La Unión (later Bancosorno, before it was ultimately taken over by Banco Santander-Chile ) was a testimony to a period of prosperity that one can no longer speak of. You can still find architectural traces of the German settlers who settled in La Unión and the surrounding area. Since the turn of the millennium, there has been a slight influx of German-speaking emigrants from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, mainly to the surrounding municipalities of the city. They are increasingly devoting themselves to tourism and the production of higher-priced foods such as ham, smoked salmon and organic spreads. In 2014, a bakery opened in the city that offers German baked goods.
In the course of the creation of the XIV. Región de los Ríos, La Unión became the capital of the newly established Ranco Province, which includes the municipalities of La Unión, Futrono, Lago Ranco and Río Bueno. Due to the great potential in agriculture and forestry, La Unión is now the most important agro-industrial center in the region.
tourism
The municipality of La Unión has organized the Festival del Alerce Milenario de La Unión (Festival of the Millennial Larch) for five years, which aims to encourage authors, composers and performers to create and disseminate national folk music. In addition, the city and its surroundings offer various tourist opportunities. It should be mentioned that the city is located near Lake Ranco, surrounded by beautiful landscapes (the coastal cordillera) and seaside resorts (e.g. the Pacific beach Hueicolla, 80 km away, or the beaches on Lake Ranco).
Web links
- Official website of the city administration (Spanish)
- Official Homepage COLUN (Spanish)
- Official homepage of the German bakery Omi Gretchen (Spanish)