San Jorge is a village or populated centre in the
Durazno Department of central
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
.
Location
The village is located on Route 100, about northeast of its junction with Route 14 and northeast of the department capital city of
Durazno.
History
San Jorge was
established as a British enclave in the 19th century. The
estancia
An estancia is a large, private plot of land used for farming or raising cattle or sheep. Estancias in the southern South American grasslands, the ''pampas'', have historically been estates used to raise livestock, such as cattle or sheep. In Pu ...
San Jorge was a centre of industrial and agricultural modernization: land was fenced off to secure private property,
afforestation
Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees (forestation) in an area where there was no previous tree cover. Many government and non-governmental organizations directly engage in afforestation programs to create forests a ...
took place, there were advances in cattle breeding techniques, and a
flour mill was constructed. In 1897, residents of San Jorge were the first British riders to play
polo
Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...
on Uruguayan soil.
Since 2004, the village has held the Encuentro Británico-Oriental, an annual festival featuring a parade, horseback riding contests, music, stands selling handcrafted goods, as well as a tour to historical points of interest.
Geography
The artificial lake
Lago Rincón del Bonete __NOTOC__
Lago, which means "lake" in Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Galician, may refer to:
Places
*Lago, Calabria, a ''comune'' in the Province of Cosenza, Italy
*Lago, Mexico, a municipality zone in the State of Mexico
*Lago District, a ''dis ...
is north of the village and the stream Arroyo Chileno to the east. This stream flows in a wide vale that floods when the lake has high waters. Because of this, the circumventing road connecting the village with its nearby town of
Blanquillo is about long. The nearest populated place to San Jorge is the village Aguas Buenas, to the southeast.
Population
In 2011 San Jorge had a population of 502.
Source: ''Instituto Nacional de Estadística de Uruguay''
References
External links
INE map of San Jorge
Populated places in the Durazno Department
{{Durazno-geo-stub