Oruro (Hispanicized spelling) or Uru Uru is a city in

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

with a population of 264,683 (2012 calculation), about halfway between

La Paz La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the third-most populous city in Bol ...

and

Sucre Sucre () is the capital of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the 6th most populated city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . This relatively high altitude gives the ...

in the

Altiplano The Altiplano (Spanish for "high plain"), Collao (Quechua and Aymara: Qullaw, meaning "place of the Qulla") or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the most extensive high plateau on Earth outside Tibet. The plateau is located at ...

, approximately above sea level. It is Bolivia's fifth-largest city by population, after Santa Cruz de la Sierra, El Alto, La Paz, and Cochabamba. It is the capital of the Department of Oruro and the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oruro. Oruro has been subject to cycles of

boom and bust Business cycles are intervals of expansion followed by recession in economic activity. These changes have implications for the welfare of the broad population as well as for private institutions. Typically business cycles are measured by examini ...

owing to its dependence on the mining industry, notably tin, tungsten (wolfram),

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

and copper.

History

The city was founded on November 1, 1606, by Don Manuel Castro de Padilla as a silver-mining center in the Urus region. At the time it was named Real Villa de San Felipe de Austria, after the

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 ...

monarch Philip III. It thrived for a while, but it was eventually abandoned as the silver mines became exhausted. Oruro was reestablished by European Bolivians in the late nineteenth century as a tin mining center. It was named after the native tribe ''Uru-Uru.'' For a time, the La Salvadora tin mine was the most important source of tin in the world. Gradually, as this resource became less plentiful, Oruro again went into a decline. Its economy is still based on the mining industry.

Economy

While traditionally based upon mining, Oruro has become increasingly popular for tourism since the late 20th century. In the early 21st century, Oruro's economy grew through trade and economic connections 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 eas ...

, especially for exporting products to Pacific markets. It transported products by road through Chile to the Pacific port of

Iquique Iquique () is a port city and commune in northern Chile, capital of both the Iquique Province and Tarapacá Region. It lies on the Pacific coast, west of the Pampa del Tamarugal, which is part of the Atacama Desert. It has a population of 191, ...

to open new connections to external markets; it also used the rail connection through Uyuni to the port at

Antofagasta Antofagasta () is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2015 census, the city has a population of 402,669. After the Spanish American wars ...

for exports. Thanks to increased road building, Oruro has become important as a waystation on the overland route of goods from the Atlantic

port of Santos The Port of Santos (in Portuguese: ''Porto de Santos'') is located in the city of Santos, state of São Paulo, Brazil. As of 2006, it is the busiest container port in Latin America. In 2016, it was considered the 39th largest port in the world ...

, Brazil, through Puerto Suárez and Santa Cruz to the capital,

. The city is served by the Oruro Airport.

Culture and education

Despite its economic decline, the city attracts numerous tourists to its

Carnaval de Oruro The Carnival of Oruro is a religious and cultural festival in Oruro, Bolivia. It has been celebrated since the 18th century. Originally an indigenous festival, the celebration later was transformed to incorporate a Christian ritual around ...

, considered one of the great folkloric events in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

for its masked " diablada" and Anata. The Oruru Carnival was discovered in 1559, when the Augustinian priests were on the land, the festival is in honor of the Virgin of Candlemas. The Oruro Symphony Orchestra is based in the city. Aymara painter and printmaker Alejandro Mario Yllanes (1913–1960) was born here.Raynor, Vivien
ART; "Works by a Vanished Bolivian Painter"
''New York Times.'' 5 April 1992 (retrieved 2 May 2009) The Universidad Técnica de Oruro, noted for its engineering school, is located in Oruro.

Climate

Oruro lies north of the salty lakes Uru Uru and Poopó. It is three hours (by bus) from La Paz. Located at an altitude of 3709 meters above sea level, Oruro is well known for its cold weather. Warmer temperatures generally take place during August, September and October, after the worst of the winter chills and before the summer rains. From May to early July, night time temperatures combined with cool wind can bring the temperature down to about -20 °C. Summers are warmer, and, although it is an arid area, it has considerable rainfall between November and March. The

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

describes the climate as a cold

subtropical highland climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...

, bordering on a

cold semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi ...

, abbreviated Cwb and

Bsk BSK is a three-letter abbreviation that may refer to: Sports * OFK Beograd, Serbian football club * FK BSK Borča, Serbian football club * FK BSK Batajnica, Serbian football club * FK BSK Banja Luka, Bosnian-Herzegovinian football club * FK BSK L ...

. Due to the warm days and dry winters, snow is not a frequent occurrence as much as the bitter cold (especially at night); however, flurries can fall usually once every few years, most recently July 4, 2015. The other three most recent snowfalls were those of 13 June 2013, 1 September 2010 (with accumulation), as well as one in 2008.

Main attractions

Museo Patiño Museo may refer to: * Museo, 2018 Mexican drama heist film *Museo (Naples Metro) Museo is a station on line 1 of the Naples Metro. It was opened on 5 April 2001 as the eastern terminus of the section of the line between Vanvitelli and Museo. O ...

, former residence of "tin baron"

Simón Iturri Patiño Simón Iturri Patiño (1 June 1862 – 20 April 1947) was a Bolivian industrialist who was among the world's wealthiest people at the time of his death. With a fortune built from ownership of a majority of the tin industry in Bolivia, Patiño w ...

*Museo Mineralógico (Mineralogical Museum): has exhibits of precious stones, minerals, and fossils *Museo Etnográfico Minero (Ethnographical Mining Museum): housed in a mine tunnel, depicts methods of Bolivian mining *Museo Nacional Antropológico Eduardo López Rivas (National Anthropological Museum): displays tools and information on the Chipaya and Uru tribes, and about

. *Churches: Catedral Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, Santuario de la Virgen del Socavón, Iglesia de Cunchupata *Inti Raymi, a mine

Education

Because of a high proportion of German-speaking residents, many of whom came as immigrants to work in the mines, the area once had a German school, ''Deutsche Schule Oruro''.Deutscher Bundestag 4. Wahlperiode Drucksache IV/3672
().

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Comm ...

(West Germany). 23 June 1965. Retrieved on 12 March 2016. p. 18/51.

Gallery

File:Poopo 1991.jpg,

Lake Poopó __NOTOC__ Lake Poopó ( es, Lago Poopó ) was a large saline lake in a shallow depression in the Altiplano Mountains in Oruro Department, Bolivia, at an altitude of approximately . Because the lake was long and wide (), it made up the eastern ...

, Bolivia File:Una_vista_a_los_edificios_que_tiene_la_Ciudad_de_Oruro.png, Downtown Oruro, Bolivia File:Superposiciones,_Oruro,_Bolivia_-_panoramio.jpg, Oruro, Bolivia File:Catedral_de_Oruro_-_Vista_Lateral.jpg, Oruro Cathedral File:Taitas.jpg, Taitas de Oruro File:Monumento_a_la_Virgen_del_Socavón_de_noche.jpg, ''Monumento a la Virgen Candelaria'', Oruro, Bolivia File:Plaza10deFebrero.jpg, Plaza 10 de Febrero, Oruro

Twin towns – sister cities

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...

, Peru *

, Chile * Calama, Chile

Notable people from Oruro

* Elsa Cladera de Bravo (1922–2005), trade union leader *

Hilda Mundy Hilda Mundy (pseudonym: Laura Villanueva Rocabado; 1912–1980) was a Bolivian writer, poet, and journalist. Biography Laura Villanueva Rocabado was born in Oruro, Bolivia, in 1912, the second of three siblings. She was the daughter of the archit ...

(1912–1980), Bolivian writer, poet & journalist

References

External links

Oruro's full information about hotels, history, carnival, tourism, pictures, videos, and news

Weather in Oruro

Oruro's Carnival]
Oruro's Carnival

{{Authority control Populated places in Oruro Department Tin mines in Bolivia Populated places established in 1606 1606 establishments in the Spanish Empire Populated places in the Altiplano eo:Oruro