Masoller | |
|---|---|
Village | |
  Masoller Location in Uruguay | |
| Coordinates:31°05′05″S56°00′30″W / 31.08472°S 56.00833°W /-31.08472; -56.00833 | |
| Country |  Uruguay |
| Department | Rivera Department |
| Population (2011) | |
• Total | 240 |
| Time zone | UTC -3 |
| Postal code | 40001 |
| Dial plan | +598 4656 (+4 digits) |
Masoller is a village or populated centre of theRivera Department in northernUruguay, next to thede facto border withBrazil, in an area where that border is disputed.
The village is located on Route 30, on the tripoint withSalto andArtigasdepartments, in themunicipality ofTranqueras.
In 1904 a notable battle was fought at Masoller between the opposing forces of theColorados, led byJosé Batlle y Ordóñez, and theBlancos, led byAparicio Saravia, resulting in a victory for the former. TheBattle of Masoller is reckoned to mark the end of theintermittent civil war which occurred throughout much of 19th centuryUruguay.
A longstanding border dispute involving territory in the vicinity of Masoller exists betweenUruguay andBrazil, although this has not harmed close diplomatic and economic relations between the two countries;Brazil andUruguay have not actively asserted overt measures to reinforce their respective claims to the area such as by sending troops to the vicinity. The disputed area is calledRincón de Artigas (Portuguese:Rincão de Artigas), and the dispute arises from the fact that thetreaty that delimited the Brazil-Uruguay border in 1851 determined that the border in that area would be a creek calledArroyo de la Invernada (Portuguese:Arroio da Invernada), but the two countries disagree on which actual stream is the so-named one.[1]
So far, Rincão de Artigas is effectively under Brazilian control. The village of Masoller itself is in undisputed Uruguayan territory, just a few hundred metres from the largely unmarked and unimpededde facto international border.[2]
In 2011 Masoller had a population of 240.[3]
| Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 1963 | 56 |
| 1975 | 115 |
| 1985 | 61 |
| 1996 | 201 |
| 2004 | 261 |
| 2011 | 240 |
Source:Instituto Nacional de Estadística de Uruguay[4]
Capital:Rivera | ||
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| Towns and villages | ||
| Sights | ||
