Fort Tolpán was built in 1657, by order of governor

Pedro Porter Casanate Admiral Pedro Porter y Casanate (April 30, 1611 – February 27, 1662) was a Spanish sailor, soldier, explorer of California and Royal Governor of Chile from 1656 to 1662. Early life Porter was born in Zaragoza, the second son of Juan Porter and E ...

by captain

Alonso de Cordova y Figueroa Alonso de Cordova y Figueroa (? - August 9, 1698) Spanish soldier born in Concepción, Chile, son of Alonso de Figueroa y Córdoba and father of the historian Pedro de Cordova y Figueroa. He served as lieutenant, captain of infantry and of cavalry ...

on the Tolpán or Trolpán River. The Tolpán River was the name at that time for what is now the lower part of the

Renaico River Renaico River is a Chilean river that, along all its length, straddles the border between the regions of Bío Bío and La Araucanía. Renaico River rises from the northwest flank of Cordillera de Pemehue, a western spur of the Andes Mountains, no ...

and then the

Vergara River Vergara River is a river located in the Intermediate Depression of Chile. The river rises at the junction of the Malleco and Rehue rivers, close to the city of Angol.

from the confluence with the Renaico until where it empties into the

Bio Bio River Bio or BIO may refer to: Computing * bio(4), a pseudo-device driver in RAID controller management interface in OpenBSD and NetBSD * Block I/O, a concept in computer data storage Politics * Julius Maada Bio (born 1964), Sierra Leonean politicia ...

. Tolpán or Trolpán is a contraction of the

Mapudungun Mapuche (, Mapuche & Spanish: , or Mapudungun; from ' 'land' and ' 'speak, speech') is an Araucanian language related to Huilliche spoken in south-central Chile and west-central Argentina by the Mapuche people (from ''mapu'' 'land' and ''che ...

''thol'', "in front", and of ''pagui'', "lion", meaning "in front of lion". Located at the confluence of the Renaico and Vergara Rivers, captain Cordova y Figueroa used the fort to operate against the

Mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who sha ...

lands round about during the

Mapuche Insurrection of 1655 The Mapuche uprising of 1655 ( es, alzamiento mapuche de 1655 or ) was a series of coordinated Mapuche attacks against Spanish settlements and forts in colonial Chile. It was the worst military crisis in Chile in decades, and contemporaries even ...

but it was abandoned a few years later.

Sources

Francisco Solano Asta-Buruaga y Cienfuegos Francisco Solano Asta-Buruaga y Cienfuegos (July 21, 1817 – June 13, 1892) was a Chilean politician and lawyer. Biography Astaburuaga was born in Talca on July 21, 1817. His parents were Cayetano Astaburuaga Valdovinos and Petronila Cienfuego ...

Diccionario geográfico de la República de Chile, SEGUNDA EDICIÓN CORREGIDA Y AUMENTADA, NUEVA YORK, D. APPLETON Y COMPAÑÍA, 1899, Pg. 843 Tolpán or Trolpán
Tolpan Geography of Araucanía Region Geography of Biobío Region {{Chile-struct-stub

See also

Sources