Santa Cruz is a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

and commune, located in the Colchagua valley, in the

O'Higgins Region The Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region (, ), often shortened to O'Higgins Region (), is one of Chile's 16 first order administrative divisions. It is subdivided into three provinces. It is named in honour of Bernardo O'Higgins Riquel ...

, located on the southern shore of the Tinguiririca river, 110 miles from

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

, Chile's capital city, and 27 miles from San Fernando.

History

There is no exact data about the founding of the city, although there is an official date when the city became a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the year 1891, the same year that

Pichilemu Pichilemu (, ), originally known as Pichilemo, is a beach resort cities in Chile, city and communes of Chile, commune in central Chile, and capital of Cardenal Caro Province in the O'Higgins Region. The commune comprises an urban centre and tw ...

did. From its beginnings, the town was a center of handcrafted artifacts and agricultural development, with wheat, tomatoes, and wine being the main products of the area. Because of the relation with countryside traditions from its beginning, Santa Cruz offers an authentic look at the rural traditions of Chilean culture expressed in the wine, the food, and the traditional sports such as the rodeo. The city of Santa Cruz was among those affected by the

2010 Chile earthquake The 2010 Chile earthquake and tsunami () occurred off the coast of central Chile on Saturday, 27 February at 03:34:12 local time (06:34:12 UTC), having a magnitude of 8.8 on the moment magnitude scale, with intense shaking lasting for about ...

Demographics

According to the 2002

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of the National Statistics Institute, Santa Cruz spans an area of and has 32,387 inhabitants (16,160 men and 16,227 women). Of these, 18,603 (57.4%) lived in

urban area An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

s and 13,784 (42.6%) in

rural area In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

s. The population grew by 10.7% (3,129 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses.

Tourist attractions

Santa Cruz has very well preserved colonial architecture. The most famous tourist attractions of the city are located in the Plaza de Armas. These include the historic Santa Cruz church, Santa Cruz Hotel, and Carillon Clock, the latter of which was constructed in 1970 and is used today as an interactive tourist information center.

Economy

In the last two decades, rural tourism has become an important source of revenue for the city. The development of this industry was due especially because of the vineyards placed in the valley joint in a project called "Wine Route",http://www.rutadelvino.cl Ruta del vino/ that offers several tours in the area

Climate

Temperate warm climate, with rains between June and November.

Administration

As a commune, Santa Cruz is a third-level

administrative division of Chile The administrative division or territorial organization of Chile exemplifies characteristics of a unitary state. State administration is functionally and geographically decentralized, as appropriate for each authority in accordance with the law ...

administered by a

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

, headed by an

alcalde ''Alcalde'' (; ) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and Administration (government), administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor (position), corregidor, the presiding officer o ...

, who is directly elected every four years. The 2021-2024 alcalde is William Arévalo.

Towns and villages

* Isla de Yáquil * Paniahue * Villa Alegre

References

External links

*
Municipality of Santa Cruz
{{Authority control Communes of Chile Populated places in Colchagua Province