Fort Virhuenco was a Spanish fort located in what is now

Araucanía Region The Araucanía ( ), La Araucanía Region ( es, Región de La Araucanía ) is one of Chile's 16 first-order administrative divisions, and comprises two provinces: Malleco in the north and Cautín in the south. Its capital and largest city is Te ...

of southern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. It was first established by

Alonso de Ribera Alonso de Ribera y Zambrano (; 1560 – March 9, 1617) was a Spanish soldier and twice Spanish royal governor of Chile (1601–1605 and 1612–1617). Early life Born in Úbeda, he was the illegitimate son of Hidalgo and Captain Jorge de Ribera Za ...

in 1613 as part of his system of frontier forts. It was located in the valley of Virhuén southeast of the city of

Angol Angol is a commune and capital city of the Malleco Province in the Araucanía Region of southern Chile. It is located at the foot of the Nahuelbuta Range and next to the Vergara River, that permitted communications by small boats to the Bío-Bío ...

and in the upper part of the

Rehue River A rehue (Mapudungun spelling rewe) or kemukemu is a type of pillar-like sacred altar used by the Mapuche of Chile in many of their ceremonies. Altar/Axis mundi The ''rehue'' is a carved tree trunk set in the ground, surrounded by a hedge o ...

near the western part the region of

Quechereguas Quechereguas is a Chilean village located in Molina, Chile, Molina, Talca Province, Maule Region. It is bordered by the Lontué River. Quechereguas was described by Francisco Solano Asta-Buruaga y Cienfuegos in his book ''Diccionario Geográfico d ...

where the high mountains begin. Later it was abandoned or destroyed. Again in 1665 Governor

Francisco de Meneses Brito Francisco de Meneses Brito (died 1672) was Royal Governor of Chile between 1664 and 1667. Biography Born in Cádiz in 1615, was the son of Alonso de Meneses and Catalina Corbalán de Castilla. His wife was Catalina Bravo, daughter of Francisc ...

erected there fort San Carlos, which, the

Mapuches 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 ...

took and killed all the garrison on May 20, 1667.According to Don José Basilio de Rojas y Fuentes, Apuntes de lo acaecido en la conquista do Chile, desde sus principios hasta el año de 1672. The name of ''Virhuén'' and also that of ''Virhuenco'' are alterations 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 ...

''virquen'' or ''virquyn'' that means "cold earth".

References

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 ...

br>Diccionario geográfico de la República de Chile, SEGUNDA EDICIÓN CORREGIDA Y AUMENTADA, NUEVA YORK, D. APPLETON Y COMPAÑÍA. 1899. Pg.887 Virhuén.—Comarca
Virguenco 1613 establishments in the Spanish Empire {{Chile-struct-stub