12/09/2019
ISLA MANCERA
Located at the end of Valdivia River, in front of Niebla, about 15 km from Valdivia, is Mancera Island.
Called Güiguacabín by the original inhabitants of this area, it was renamed Mancera on February 6, 1645 by the Spanish conquerors.
After the Dutch occupation of Valdivia, carried out by the expedition of Hendrick Brouwer in 1643, the viceroy of Peru Pedro Álvarez de Toledo and Leiva, First Marquis of Mancera, ordered the construction of fortifications. Mancera Island was set as the main axis and political and military center. In 1645 the Castle of San Pedro de Alcántara and its Plaza de Armas were built.
The Castle of San Pedro de Alcántara and its Plaza de Armas is located on Mancera Island. It was the foundational point of the defensive system.
Since 1760 the population of Valdivia moved to this place. They began the construction of the Plaza de Armas with their respective warehouses.
On May 26, 1774, the neighbors agreed to return to Valdivia. Only one military garrison remained on the island.
On February 2 and 3, 1820, the island was taken by Admiral Thomas Alexander Cochrane, representing the liberating army of Chile in a risky maneuver under crossfire of all the forts of the defensive system. This episode is known as the Taking of Valdivia. Currently the ruins of the fortification are preserved, under the administration of the Universidad Austral de Chile.
Mancera Island has an area of approximately 50 hectares. In the central part there is a hill covered mainly by native forest. Its contours of the north and northeast are rocky with sandy beaches and shellfish shells. In another sector there are beaches suitable for swimming, which are accompanied by small waterfalls from natural watersheds.
Today Isla Mancera is one of the main tourist attractions of Valdivia.
