Purranque is a

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 ...

in the

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 ...

Los Lagos Region Los Lagos Region ( , 'Region of the Lakes') is one of regions of Chile, Chile's 16 regions, which are first order administrative divisions, and comprises four provinces: Chiloé Province, Chiloé, Llanquihue Province, Llanquihue, Osorno Provin ...

, which lies on the

Pan-American Highway The Pan-American Highway is a vast network of roads that stretches about 30,000 kilometers (about 19,000 miles) from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in the northernmost part of North America to Ushuaia, Argentina, at the southern tip of South America. I ...

about north of

Puerto Montt Puerto Montt (Mapuche: Meli Pulli) is a port city and commune in southern Chile, located at the northern end of the Reloncaví Sound in the Llanquihue Province, Los Lagos Region, 1,055 km to the south of the capital, Santiago. The commune ...

. It is part of the

Osorno Province Osorno Province () is one of the four provinces in the southern Chilean region of Los Lagos (X). The province has an area of and a population of 221,496 distributed across seven communes ( Spanish: ''comunas''). The provincial capital is the c ...

History

The first ethnically identifiable inhabitants of the area were

Huilliche The Huilliche (), Huiliche or Huilliche-Mapuche are the southern partiality of the Mapuche macroethnic group in Chile and Argentina. Located in the Zona Sur, they inhabit both Futahuillimapu ("great land of the south") and, as the Cunco or Ve ...

s, an indigenous people, and the land belonged to ''Cacique'' (Chief) Raylef, who was known as "''Cacique Don Raylef de Purranquil''"; Purranquil meaning in

Mapudungun language Mapuche ( , ; from 'land' and 'people', meaning 'the people of the land') or Mapudungun (from 'land' and 'speak, speech', meaning 'the speech of the land'; also spelled Mapuzugun and Mapudungu) is either a language isolate or member of the sm ...

“bush land”. The present city was founded on April 18, 1911 as ""Villa Lo Burgos de Purranquil"", by

Tomás Burgos Tomás Burgos Sotomayor (September 18, 1875 in Osorno – August 19, 1945 in Valdivia) was a Chilean philanthropist, one of the strongest supporters of the "mutualist movement" and the founder of "Villa Lo Burgos", the present city of Purranque. ...

, in a plot of land south of Osorno, along the railroad line between that city and

. On November 24, 1941 the town was elevated to the category of city by law 6402.

Geography

Climate

It is classified as

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

: ''Cfb''), on summer, the temperature reaches to 23°C, on winter are cold in Purranque, the temperature reaches to 4°C,

frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor that deposits onto a freezing surface. Frost forms when the air contains more water vapor than it can normally hold at a specific temperature. The process is simila ...

are common on winter.

Tourism

The city is served by

Canal Bajo Carlos Hott Siebert Airport Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or river engineering, engineered channel (geography), channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport watercraft, vehicles (e.g. ...

, located near Osorno, and the El Tepual International Airport, located near

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, Purranque spans an area of and has 20,705 inhabitants (10,354 men and 10,351 women). Of these, 13,265 (64.1%) 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 7,440 (35.9%) 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 2.6% (529 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses.

Administration

As a commune, Purranque 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 2008-2012 alcalde is César Negrón Schwerter ( PS). Within the

electoral divisions of Chile This article covers the electoral division of Chile, which involves two distinct systems: # Chamber of Deputies of Chile, Chamber of Deputies and Senate of Chile, Senate: Chile is divided into electoral districts and senatorial constituencies for ...

, Purranque 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 Bourb ...

by Fidel Espinoza (PS) and Carlos Recondo (

UDI Udi may refer to: Places * Udi, Enugu, a local government areas and city in Nigeria * Udi Hills, Enugu State, Nigeria * Udi, a place in the Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh, India People Given name * Udi Aloni (born 1959), Israeli-American film ...

) as part of the 56th electoral district, together with Puyehue, Río Negro,

Puerto Octay Puerto Octay is a List of towns in Chile, town and Communes of Chile, commune in Osorno Province located on the north shore of Llanquihue Lake in Los Lagos Region in the south of Chile. It was settled by German people, German colonists in 1852. P ...

, Fresia,

Frutillar Frutillar is a List of cities in Chile, city and Communes of Chile, commune located in southern Chile, Chilean Patagonia, in Llanquihue Province, within the Los Lagos Region, the lake district. The bay of Frutillar is placed on the banks of Lake L ...

, Llanquihue,

Puerto Varas Puerto Varas, also known as "La Ciudad De Las Rosas" or “The City Of Roses”, is a List of cities in Chile, city and Communes of Chile, commune located in the southern Chilean province of Llanquihue Province, Llanquihue, in the Los Lagos Region ...

and

Los Muermos Los Muermos is a city and commune in Llanquihue Province, Los Lagos Region in southern Chile. Demographics According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Los Muermos spans an area of and has 16,964 inhabitants (8,939 men an ...

. 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 ...

by Camilo Escalona Medina (PS) and Carlos Kuschel Silva ( RN) as part of the 17th senatorial constituency (Los Lagos Region).

Education

Previously the area had a German school, Deutsche Schule Purranque.Deutscher Bundestag 4. Wahlperiode Drucksache IV/3672

Archive
.

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

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

References

External links

Municipality of Purranque (Official city webpage)

Diario Austral de Osorno (newspaper of the area)

{{Communes in Los Lagos Region Communes of Chile Populated places established in 1911 Populated places in Osorno Province 1911 establishments in Chile