San Javier () is a

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 ...

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and commune located in the Province of Linares, Maule Region. The city lies in the geographical center of the country, some south of

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

, to the northwest of the provincial capital, Linares, and to the south of

Talca Talca () is a city and commune in Chile located about south of Santiago, and is the capital of both Talca Province and Maule Region (7th Region of Chile). As of the 2012 census, the city had a population of 201,142. The city is an importan ...

, the regional capital. The

Pan-American Highway The Pan-American Highway (french: (Auto)route panaméricaine/transaméricaine; pt, Rodovia/Auto-estrada Pan-americana; es, Autopista/Carretera/Ruta Panamericana) is a network of roads stretching across the Americas and measuring about in to ...

(" Ruta 5 Sur") passes through the commune of San Javier, touching tangentially the eastern side of the town. A paved road connects San Javier with

Colbún Colbún (Mapudungun: "Cleaning of the land") is a Chilean town and commune in Linares Province, Maule Region. The commune has a population of over 17,000 inhabitants and covers an area of , making it the province's largest. Its capital, the town ...

, Colbún dam lake and Panimávida and Quinamávida

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 ...

Demography

According to 2005 estimates, the commune of San Javier has a population of 39,583, of which 19,682 are male and 19,901 are female. About 60% of the population is urban and 40% is

rural 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 typically are de ...

. According to the 2002

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

of the National Statistics Institute, the population of the commune of San Javier was 37,793 inhabitants (18,827 men and 18,966 women). Of these, 22,004 (58.2%) lived in

urban area An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities ...

s and 15,789 (41.8%) 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 typically are descr ...

s. Between the 1992 and 2002 censuses, the population grew by 6.2% (2,206 persons).

Geography

The commune covers an area of . The eastern (and smaller) part of its territory lies within the fertile, central

plain In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands ...

or "depresión intermedia", (

Chilean Central Valley The Central Valley ( es, Valle Central), Intermediate Depression, or Longitudinal Valley is the depression between the Chilean Coastal Range and the Andes Mountains. The Chilean Central Valley extends from the border with Peru to Puerto Montt in ...

) but the extense western part is hilly and somewhat drier, a typical " Cordillera de la Costa" terrain, which requires supplemental irrigation to support its varied cultivations. This area lends itself nicely to

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented grapes. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different ...

growing and

cereal A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grain crops are grown in greater quantities and provide more food ...

cultivation. Therefore, San Javier has some of the better

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyard ...

s and quality wines of the bountiful Maule Valley, in the Chile's central valley viticultural regions or

appellation An appellation is a legally defined and protected geographical indication primarily used to identify where the grapes for a wine were grown, although other types of food often have appellations as well. Restrictions other than geographical bo ...

s. San Javier is bordered on the west by the communes of Constitución and Empedrado, (both in Talca province), Cauquenes, (in

Cauquenes Province Cauquenes Province ( es, Provincia de Cauquenes) is one of four provinces of the central Chilean region of Maule (VII). The provincial capital is the city of Cauquenes. Geography and demography The provincial capital, Cauquenes, lies approxim ...

), and Villa Alegre; on the north by Pencahue and Maule communes, in Talca province; on the east, by

Yerbas Buenas Yerbas Buenas is a Chilean town and commune in Linares Province, Maule Region. It lies in the geographical center of the country, on the fertile central plain, some south of the national capital of Santiago, south of Talca, the regional capital ...

, Villa Alegre, Linares and

Longaví Longaví (in Mapudungun: ''snake's head'') is a Chilean city and commune located in Linares Province, one of the four provinces that make up the Maule Region, in the geographical center of Chile. Geography The commune has a surface of and is bo ...

and on the south, by Cauquenes and Retiro. The town lies on the right margin of the River Loncomilla. Located a few km north of San Javier is the wide Maule river, of which the Loncomilla is the main tributary. River Purapel, a regional "anomaly", since it flows eastward in a country where the overwhelming majority of rivers flow in the opposite direction, is a tributary of the Loncomilla.

Geographic coordinates

* Elevation: * Latitude: 35° 36' 0S * Longitude: 71° 42' 0W

Heritage

Architecture

There are many villages and other smaller, rural entities within the communal territory; several of them are quite distant from the main urban centers and relatively isolated from the more distorting external cultural influences. Therefore, the commune can boast several villages with well-preserved colonial rural architecture - the criollo legacy - both in the religious as well as the civil domains. Singular examples of this brand of picturesque and bucolic villages, in the commune, are: Huerta de Maule, Nirivilo, Bobadilla, Caliboro and Melozal. Also, along the paved road that connects the towns of San Javier and Villa Alegre there are some outstanding examples of traditional Chilean rural architecture, which is especially noticeable in the farm houses (''casas de fundo'') typical of the region. Some of the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

es in this zone are among the oldest in the Linares diocese and the Maule Region.

Poets

The Maule Region has produced a remarkable number of writers and poets and in consonancy with this legacy, San Javier has been the birthplace of two gifted poets: Raimundo Echeverría y Larrazábal (1897–1924) and

Jerónimo Lagos Lisboa Jerónimo Lagos Lisboa (1883–1958) was a Chilean poet. He was born in San Javier de Loncomilla, Linares Province, Maule Region, Chile, in 1883. He was a president of the Chilean Writers Society. He was awarded several poetry prizes, among th ...

(1883–1958).

Administration

As a commune, San Javier is a third-level administrative division of Chile 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, rural counc ...

, headed by an

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

who is directly elected every four years. The 2008-2012 alcalde is Pedro Fernández Chavarrí ( PDC), and the councillors are as follows: * José Zapata Mora:

UDI Udi may refer to: Places * Udi, Enugu, a local government areas and city in Nigeria * Udi, a place in the Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh, India People * Udi Gal (born 1979), Israeli Olympic sailor * Udi Vaks (born 1979), Israeli Olympic judoka ...

* Maria Yolanda Lopez Balduzzi: RN * Jorge Ignacio Silva Sepúlveda: PDC * Gabriel Rodriguez Bustos: PPD * Ronaldo Abraham Flores: PPD * Cristobal Cancino Albornoz:

Within the electoral divisions of Chile, San Javier is represented in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

by Jorge Tarud (PDC) and Romilio Gutiérrez (UDI) as part of the 39th electoral district, together with Linares,

, Villa Alegre,

. The commune is represented in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Hernán Larraín Hernán Larraín Fernández (born September 21, 1947) is a conservative Chilean lawyer, university lecturer, and politician; he served as the Chilean Minister of Justice and Human rights, appointed by president Sebastián Piñera, between 2018 ...

(UDI) and Manuel Antonio Matta (PDC) as part of the 11th senatorial constituency (Maule-South).

References

External links

*
Municipality of San Javier

Aerial view of San Javier, Chile
with the

Loncomilla river Loncomilla River (Mapudungun for "Gold of the Chief") is a tributary to the Maule river in Linares Province, Maule Region, Chile."Lonc ...

to the west and the confluence of the latter and the Maule river, to the north (Google maps) {{Authority control Populated places in Linares Province Communes of Chile Populated places established in 1852 1852 establishments in Chile