San Juan Province () is a

province of Argentina Argentina is subdivided into twenty-three federated states called provinces ( es, provincias, singular ''provincia'') and one called the autonomous city (''ciudad autónoma'') of Buenos Aires, which is the federal capital of the republic ( es ...

, located in the western part of the country. Neighbouring provinces are, moving clockwise from the north,

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous community and province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, and N� ...

, San Luis and Mendoza. It borders with

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 ...

to the west. The province has an area of 89,651 km², covering a mountainous region with scarce vegetation, fertile oases and turbulent rivers. Throughout the entire province there are an important number of

paleontological Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (geology), epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes t ...

sites. Similar to other regions in Argentina, agriculture is one of the most important economic activities, highlighting wine production and olive oil. Additionally, a variety of fruits and vegetables are produced in the fertile valleys irrigated by artificial channels in the western part, close to the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

mountain range. This is the second province in volume of wine production at the national level and in South America, and possesses outstanding varietal wines. It is also an important center of mining and oil production.

History

Before the arrival of

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

conquistadores Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, ...

, different tribes like

Huarpe The Huarpes or Warpes are an indigenous people of Argentina, living in the Cuyo region. Some scholars assume that in the Huarpe language, this word means "sandy ground," but according to ''Arte y Vocabulario de la lengua general del Reino de Chi ...

Diaguita The Diaguita people are a group of South American indigenous people native to the Chilean Norte Chico and the Argentine Northwest. Western or Chilean Diaguitas lived mainly in the Transverse Valleys which incised in a semi-arid environment. Ea ...

s, Capazanes, Olongastas and Yacampis, highly influenced by the

Inca empire The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The admin ...

, inhabited the area. The city of San Juan de la Frontera was founded by Juan Jufré y Montesa in 1562 and relocated 2 kilometres south in 1593 due to the frequent flooding of the San Juan River. In 1776, San Juan was annexed to the

Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata ( es, Virreinato del Río de la Plata or es, Virreinato de las Provincias del Río de la Plata) meaning "River of the Silver", also called "Viceroyalty of the River Plate" in some scholarly writings, in ...

, becoming one of the cities of the

Province of Cuyo The Province of Cuyo was a historical province of Argentina. Created on 14 November 1813 by a decree issued by the Second Triumvirate, it had its capital in Mendoza, and was composed of the territories of the present-day Argentine provinces of ...

. In the same year, the first recorded earthquake caused massive damage to the city. The father of Argentine independence, Gen. Jose de San Martin, was appointed Governor of the

in 1814. From there, San Martin began his legendary crossing of the

, one of military history's great tactical decisions. San Juan, then a small town, was a great supporter of the expedition supplying gold, men and mules. In 1820, San Juan was granted autonomy from the Province of Cuyo, thereby becoming an autonomous province. The remainder of Cuyo region became

Mendoza Province Mendoza, officially Province of Mendoza, is a province of Argentina, in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. It borders San Juan to the north, La Pampa and Neuquén to the south, San Luis to the east, and the republic o ...

. Following an era of international isolation for Argentina, the advent of new, more liberal government in 1853 attracted a number of exiled intellectuals back into San Juan. Among these, was a San Juan military officer and novelist named

Domingo Sarmiento Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (; born Domingo Faustino Fidel Valentín Sarmiento y Albarracín; 15 February 1811 – 11 September 1888) was an Argentine activist, intellectual, writer, statesman and the second President of Argentina. His writing sp ...

. Sarmiento was eventually elected governor in 1862, pursuing sorely needed public investments and enacting Argentina's first law mandating compulsory education (at that time about 80% of the adult population lacked any form of education). Once elected President of Argentina in 1868, those policies became national law. In 1944 a moderate, yet highly destructive earthquake near the capital destroyed most of the city and killed 10,000 people. A fundraiser was organized to raise money for the victims of the quake where Colonel

Juan Perón Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine Army general and politician. After serving in several government positions, including Minister of Labour and Vice President of a military dictatorship, he was elected P ...

met his eventual wife and political companion

Eva Duarte Eva or EVA may refer to: * Eva (name), a feminine given name Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Eva (Dynamite Entertainment), a comic book character by Dynamite Entertainment * Eva (''Devil May Cry''), Dante's mother in t ...

. A more powerful earthquake stuck the same city in 1977; however new construction codes put in effect following the 1944 incident kept damage to a relative minimum. The most noteworthy loss following this event was the destruction of the Cathedral of San Juan (''image, at top''). A new, modernist house of worship was quickly put up in its place and inaugurated in 1979. Among the most rapidly growing provinces in Argentina after 1945, the national government began the construction of the

National University of San Juan The National University of San Juan (in Castilian, ''Universidad Nacional de San Juan'', UNSJ) is a public university in Argentina. Its seat is located in the city of San Juan, capital of the province of the same name, in the Cuyo region. It wa ...

, which opened its doors in 1973. Congress further responded to the needs of San Juan's growing agricultural sector by breaking ground in the mid '70s for the largest hydrostructural project in the province up to that point, the Ullum Dam and Reservoir. Inaugurated in 1980, it has contributed to the province's production of irrigated desert crops, like olives, figs and, most importantly, wine grapes. Cristina, Gioja y De Vido

In 2005,

Barrick Gold Corporation Barrick Gold Corporation is a mining company that produces gold and copper with 16 operating sites in 13 countries. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has mining operations in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Democrat ...

, one of the world's largest gold-mining conglomerates, announced the purchase of large tracts in the San Juan Andes where a gold mine was started. These have, so far, been yielding over 11,000 ounces of gold yearly, though evidence suggests these activities may be having an adverse impact on San Juan's glaciers. In 2007, the same company installed the world's highest-situated

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

at the Veladero mine in San Juan Province at nearly 4,200m elevation.

Geography

The province is part of the continental semi-desert Cuyo region. The arid plains start on the east, with a few low hills in the middle and swiftly turn into 6,000-meter-high mountain peaks towards the west. Both areas are subject to the dry hot Zonda (a kind of

foehn wind A Foehn or Föhn (, , ), is a type of dry, relatively warm, downslope wind that occurs in the lee (downwind side) of a mountain range. It is a rain shadow wind that results from the subsequent adiabatic warming of air that has dropped most of ...

). Most of the precipitations take place during the summer, often as electrical storms. The hot wind has modeled the clay-rich red soil into ''Pampa del Leoncito'' (''Reserva Natural Estricta El Leoncito'') and '' Valle de la Luna'' ('' Parque Provincial Ischigualasto'') 200-million-year-old geological formations. The Jáchal and San Juan rivers, both part of Desaguadero River system, are the source of fertile valleys and centre of the province's economy. The San Juan River finishes in the Huanacache lagoons (sometimes called ''Guanacache''), on the southeast. The Andes of San Juan Province belong to the

Dry Andes file:Andes_clima.png, 200px, Map of the climatic regions of the Andes. The Dry Andes are shown in yellow. The Tropical Andes are shown in green and the Wet Andes in dark blue. The Dry Andes ( es, Andes áridos) is a climatic and glaciology, glaciol ...

climatic province.

Permafrost Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...

is widespread above 3000 masl in the Andes and

rock glacier Rock glaciers are distinctive geomorphological landforms, consisting either of angular rock debris frozen in interstitial ice, former "true" glaciers overlain by a layer of talus, or something in-between. Rock glaciers are normally found at high ...

s are common. The northern part of the province contain both intrusive rocks of the Colangüil Batholith and a large

sedimentary basin Sedimentary basins are region-scale depressions of the Earth's crust where subsidence has occurred and a thick sequence of sediments have accumulated to form a large three-dimensional body of sedimentary rock. They form when long-term subsidence ...

known as Iglesia Basin. Within this basin there are

hot springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

Population

San Juan concentrates most of its population in the oases or central valleys,

Tulum Valley Tulum (, yua, Tulu'um) is the site of a pre-Columbian Mayan walled city which served as a major port for Coba, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The ruins are situated on cliffs along the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula on the Carib ...

, Zonda, Ullum and Jáchal, containing nearly 80% of this population. The remaining is located in the oasis located at the foot of the Andes in Iglesias and Calingasta. Another population concentration is in Fertile Valley.

Economy

San Juan focuses its economy in agriculture, specially wine production. Additionally, preserved foods production is highly developed. Mining is a growing activity, with the extraction of various minerals financed by multinational companies. Tourism is a relatively new and flourishing activity and it is becoming an important source of revenue for the province. San Juan's is a somewhat underdeveloped, yet diversified, economy. Its output was estimated in 2006 at US$3.613 billion, or US$5,827 per capita (a third less than the national average). Agriculture has, traditionally, played a small, though significant role in San Juan's economy. The province produces crops not widely grown in other regions of Argentina. San Juan is the second-largest producer of

Argentine Wine Argentina is the fifth largest producer of wine in the world.H. Johnson & J. Robinson ''The World Atlas of Wine'' pg 300-301 Mitchell Beazley Publishing 2005 Argentine wine, as with some aspects of Argentine cuisine, has its roots in Spain. Dur ...

, after neighboring

. The winemaking industry reached San Juan between the years 1569 and 1589 carried by the Spanish conquistadors. Blessed by the optimal weather conditions and soil, the wine-making largely expanded and accelerated development in the province. Since the beginning, the inhabitants of the region understood that the arid climate required an advanced artificial irrigation system with dams and channels.

Viticulture Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

is the main crop of the province's economy, with some 500 km² (56% of the productive area), and the rest is reserved for wine production counting 90% of the crop. Other products include tomato, maize, potato, fig and peach. Since 1980, San Juan has experienced an industrial expansion that now includes, in addition to the wineries, food processing plants, chemical, plastics, iron, auto parts and textiles factories. Manufacturing now accounts for nearly 20% of San Juan's production output. In the year 2000, the province came into mineral development with the Veladero Project of

Barrick Gold Barrick Gold Corporation is a mining company that produces gold and copper with 16 operating sites in 13 countries. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has mining operations in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Democrati ...

, which, on the first year of mining alone, yielded more than 11,000 ounces of gold. These efforts were intensified with more projects including the Easter Lama, with the particularity that it is shared with neighboring Chile. The more widespread mining products are gold, lead,

graphite Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on large ...

and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

. Large-scale efforts began, in 2006, in the search for petroleum in the department of Jáchal. Energy production is mainly hydroelectric, produced by a few dams such as Quebrada de Ullum, La Roza, San Emiliano and El Pinar Station, which also help to regulate the water level for irrigation of the arid lands. Electricity is also produced, in a lesser proportion, by

thermal power station A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a stea ...

s. San Juan has recently started to have a flourishing tourism industry. Remarkable places are the city of San Juan, the

Ischigualasto Provincial Park Ischigualasto Provincial Park ( es, Parque Provincial Ischigualasto), also called ''Valle de la Luna'' ("Valley of the Moon" or "Moon Valley"), due to its moon like appearance, is a provincial protected area in the north-east of San Juan Provin ...

, the Ullum Dam, San Guillermo National Park, the Pismanta hot springs, the Mercedario Mount and the pagan '' Difunta Correa'' shrine. These sites are specially suitable for

ecotourism Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving responsible travel (using sustainable transport) to natural areas, conserving the environment, and improving the well-being of the local people. Its purpose may be to educate the traveler, to provide funds ...

or adventure tourism. Furthermore, an increase in

agrotourism Agritourism or agrotourism involves any agriculturally based operation or activity that brings visitors to a farm or ranch. Types A 2018 article published in the ''Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development'' classified a ...

has started recently, particularly, around the wine industry, creating the so-called "Wine Routes."

Government

The provincial government is divided into three branches: the executive, headed by a popularly elected governor, who appoints the cabinet; the

legislative A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known as p ...

; and the

judiciary The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

, headed by the Supreme Court. The Constitution of San Juan Province, Argentina forms the formal law of the province. In Argentina, the most important law enforcement organization is the

Argentine Federal Police The Argentine Federal Police ( es, Policía Federal Argentina or PFA) is the national civil police force of the Argentine federal government. The PFA has detachments throughout the country. Until January 1, 2017, it also acted as the local la ...

but the additional work is carried out by the San Juan Provincial Police.

Political division

The province is divided into 19 departments ( es, link=no, departamentos). They are formally considered to be a single

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

, and usually contain one or more population centers (i.e. towns and cities). # Albardón (

General San Martín A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED O ...

) # Angaco ( Villa del Salvador) # Calingasta ( Tamberías) #

Capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

( San Juan) # Caucete ( Caucete) # Chimbas ( Paula Alabarracín de Sarmiento) #

Iglesia Iglesia may refer to: * Iglesia Department * Iglesia ni Cristo * Iglesia Filipina Independiente * Iglesia (Madrid Metro), Iglesia (Metro Madrid), a station on Line 1 {{disambiguation ...

(

Rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working va ...

) # Jáchal (

San José de Jáchal San José de Jáchal (, often shortened to Jáchal) is a city in the northeast of the province of San Juan, Argentina, located on National Route 40, south of the Jáchal River. It has 21,018 inhabitants per the , and is the head town of the Jácha ...

) # Nueve de Julio ( 9 de Julio) # Pocito ( Villa Aberastain) #

Rawson Rawson may refer to: Places *Rawson, Chubut, the capital of Chubut Province, Argentina *Rawson Department, Chubut, Argentina *Rawson Department, San Juan, Argentina **Villa Krause, also named Rawson, the capital city of the department * Rawson, Vic ...

(

Villa Krause Villa Krause is a city in the province of San Juan, Argentina in the Cuyo region. The city is located in the Tulúm Valley, west of the San Juan River, at 640 m above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical dist ...

) # Rivadavia ( Rivadavia) #

San Martín San Martín or San Martin may refer to: People Saints * Saint Martin (disambiguation)#People, name of various saints in Spanish Political leaders *Vicente San Martin (1839 -1901), Military, National hero of Mexico. *Basilio San Martin (1849 ...

( San Isidro) # Santa Lucía ( Santa Lucía) #

Sarmiento Sarmiento may refer to: Places Argentina *Sarmiento Department, San Juan, a subdivision of the San Juan Province *Sarmiento Department, Santiago del Estero, a subdivision of the Santiago del Estero Province *Sarmiento Department, Chubut, a subdivi ...

(

Media Agua Media Agua is a town in San Juan Province, Argentina. It is the headquarters of the municipal authorities of department Sarmiento and one of the more important towns in the southern San Juan area and within the Tulum Valley, the province's most ...

) # Ullum ( Villa Ibáñez) # Valle Fértil ( San Agustín) # Veinticinco de Mayo (

Santa Rosa Santa Rosa is the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish name for Saint Rose. Santa Rosa may also refer to: Places Argentina *Santa Rosa, Mendoza, a city * Santa Rosa, Tinogasta, Catamarca * Santa Rosa, Valle Viejo, Catamarca * Santa Rosa, La Pampa * S ...

) # Zonda ( Basilio Nievas)

Tourism

San Juan, known as ''The Land of the Sun'', offers mountains, valleys and turbulent rivers of melting glacier water from the

. This features create a unique landscape that is beginning to be intensively exploited by tourism. Tourism infrastructure has been also improved recently with the installation of a considerable number of hotels and other accommodation. Heavily developed areas are the northwest, in the town of

, where posts and countryside hotels have been installed. In the west, the towns of Calingasta

Barreal Barreal is a barrio in the municipality of Peñuelas, Puerto Rico. Its population in 2010 was 272. History Puerto Rico was ceded by Spain in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War under the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1898 and became an ...

and Tamberías, many projects are being develop to foster adventure tourism by with the practice of climbing the Mount

Mercedario Cerro Mercedario is the highest peak of the Cordillera de la Ramada range and the eighth-highest mountain of the Andes. It is located 100 km to the north of Aconcagua, in the Argentine province of San Juan. It was first ascended in 1934 ...

, which is one of the highest peaks in America. The northern zone, Jáchal, is known for its cultural tourism related to the gaucho tradition. A - Valle de la Luna, el hongo, San Juan, Argentina

A - Valle de la Luna, el hongo, San Juan, Argentina

Nevertheless, San Juan is the economic center of the province and also the most visited place. It is known for its modern architecture that differentiates it from others cities in the rest of the country, with wide tree-lined streets as well as hardwood parks, plazas and walkways, in the middle of the desert of San Juan. This is the cause for which has the nickname of 'city oasis'. The city holds several attractions such as Sarmiento's birthplace and modern

Cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

, among others. A number of joyful celebrations are held in the province, combining old and new traditions that pay homage to economic activities or natural events like Fiesta Nacional del Sol, which takes the form of annual parades carousel and various artistic performances. The winter sports industry has a prosper future in the province. A

ski A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partia ...

resort is under development, located in the mountainous area of Calingasta, western part of the province, where the largest ski tracks in South America are being constructed. This will be the northernmost ski resort in Argentina and will be known as ''ManantialesManantiales ski resort project home page, http://manantiales.inar.net/

Transportation

San Juan has a good transportation network, as most of the routes that connect with the rest of the country are in very good maintenance condition. The more important routes are the RN40, which crosses from north to south and joins the provinces of Mendoza and La Rioja, the RN20, which links San Juan with the city of Buenos Aires and Cordoba, the RN150, which allows a connection to the country of

. There are important projects under way that will allow a connection with the province of La Rioja, the entire northern Fertile Valley, Jáchal and Church, and with Chile, which will be a vital part of the strategic corridor Pacific-Atlantic . This project for the construction of a communication path connecting the Pacific ports of (

Coquimbo Coquimbo is a port city, commune and capital of the Elqui Province, located on the Pan-American Highway, in the Coquimbo Region of Chile. Coquimbo is situated in a valley south of La Serena, with which it forms Greater La Serena with more than ...

, Chile) and

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

(

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, , Brazilian ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of 1,488,252 inhabitants (2020) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, twelfth most populous city in the country ...

, Brazil) by Paso de Agua Negra, has been under development for more than a decade. Its importance lies in the necessity of the Southern Cone countries to put their export production into the global market at lower costs. Long-distance transportation exists and allows weekly trips to almost all the other provinces and cities in the country. The main hub is the modern bus terminal of the city of San Juan. There are another important transportation centers in

and in the city of Caucete, which is currently under construction. By bus, it takes around 18 hours to get

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. There are daily flight services to

from

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Airport Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Airport ( es, link=no, Aeropuerto de San Juan – Domingo Faustino Sarmiento) is an airport in San Juan Province, Argentina, serving the city of San Juan. It is named after Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, the seventh P ...

. The public transportation system in the city of San Juan and surrounding areas includes

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

es that connect downtown with other cities such as

, Rivadavia, Santa Lucia, Villa Paula Sarmiento Albarracín and Aberastain. Private taxis (called ''Remis'') and public taxis also exist. Rapid population growth has led to a number of projects for the construction of mass transit systems.