Mendoza (Latin American Spanish:[menˈdosa]), officially theCity of Mendoza (Spanish:Ciudad de Mendoza), is the capital of theprovince ofMendoza inArgentina. It is located in the northern-central part of the province, in a region of foothills and high plains, on the eastern side of theAndes. As of the 2010census[INDEC], Mendoza had a population of 115,041 with a metropolitan population of 1,055,679, makingGreater Mendoza the fourth largest census metropolitan area in the country.
Two of the main industries of the Mendoza area areolive oil production andArgentine wine. The region around Greater Mendoza is the largest wine-producing area inSouth America. As such, Mendoza is one of the eleven Great Wine Capitals,[3] and the city is an emergingenotourism destination and base for exploring the region's hundreds of wineries located along theArgentina Wine Route.
On 2 March 1561,Pedro del Castillo founded the city and named itCiudad de Mendoza del Nuevo Valle de La Rioja after the governor ofChile, DonGarcía Hurtado de Mendoza.[4] Before the 1560s the area was populated by tribes known as theHuarpes andPuelches. The Huarpes devised a system of irrigation that was later developed by the Spanish. This allowed for an increase in population that might not have otherwise occurred. The system is still evident today in the wide trenches (acequias), which run along all city streets, watering the approximately 100,000 trees that line every street in Mendoza.
It is estimated that fewer than 80 Spanish settlers lived in the area before 1600, but later prosperity increased due to the use of indigenous and slave labor, and theJesuit presence in the region. When nearby rivers were tapped as a source of irrigation in 1788 agricultural production increased. The extra revenues generated from this, and the ensuing additional trade withBuenos Aires,Viceroyalty on which it depended since its creation and transfer from theCaptaincy General of Chile in1776, no doubt led to the creation of the state ofCuyo in 1813 withJosé de San Martín as governor. It was from Mendoza that San Martín and other Argentinian and Chilean patriots organized the army with which they won the independence ofChile andPeru.[5]Mendoza suffereda severe earthquake in 1861 that killed at least 5,000 people. The city was rebuilt, incorporating innovative urban designs that would better tolerate such seismic activity. Mendoza was rebuilt with large squares and wider streets and sidewalks than any other city in Argentina. The layout of the modern city was established in 1863, following the 1861 earthquake. It features acentral main square surrounded by four smaller plazas, along with wider streets and sidewalks —such as Bartolomé Mitre Avenue and Sarmiento Avenue— designed to provide open space and better withstand seismic activity.
Tourism,wine production, and more recently the exploitation of commodities such as oil[6] and uranium[7] ensure Mendoza's status as a key regional centre. Important suburbs such asGodoy Cruz,Guaymallén,Las Heras andLuján de Cuyo have in recent decades far outpaced the city proper in population. Comprising half the metro population of 212,000 in 1947, these suburbs grew to nearly seven-eighths of the total metro area of over 1,000,000 by 2015, making Mendoza the most dispersed metro area in Argentina.[8]
Mendoza has several museums, including the Museo Cornelio Moyano, a natural history museum, and the Museo del Área Fundacional (Historical Regional Foundation Museum) on Pedro del Castillo Square. The Museo Nacional del Vino (National Wine Museum), focusing on the history ofwinemaking in the area, is 17 kilometres (11 miles) southeast of Mendoza inMaipú. The Casa de Fader, ahistoric house museum, is an 1890 mansion once home to artistFernando Fader in nearby Mayor Drummond, 14 kilometres (9 miles) south of Mendoza. The mansion is home to many of the artist's paintings.
The Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia (The National Grape Harvest Festival) occurs in early March each year. Part of the festivities include abeauty pageant, where 17 beauty queens from eachdepartment ofMendoza Province compete, and one winner is selected by a panel of about 50 judges. The queen of Mendoza city's department does not compete and acts as host for the other queens.
In 2008,National Geographic listed Mendoza as one of the top 10 historic destinations in the world.[9]
The city is centred around Plaza Independencia (Independence Plaza) with AvenidaSarmiento running through its centre east–west, with the east sidepedestrianized (peatonal). Other major streets, running perpendicular to Sarmiento, include Bartolomé Mitre, San Martín, and 9 de Julio (9 July), those running parallel includeColón, and Las Heras. Four smaller plazas, San Martín, Chile, Italia, and España, are located 2 blocks off each corner of Independence Plaza. Unique to Mendoza are the exposed stone ditches, essentially small canals, which run alongside many of the roads supplying water to the thousands of trees.
One common point of interest is theTeatro Independencia ("Independence Theatre"), the premier performing arts venue in Mendoza. Supervised by the nation's Ministry of Public Works, the project was commissioned to architect Alfredo Israel, and its plans were approved in October 1923. The theatre was, as were many public works of this type in Argentina at the time, designed in aFrench Academy style. Its façade included aNeoclassical frontis featuring fourCorinthian columns on a greenmarble base, arococofrieze, the provincialescutcheon inbas-relief, and abalustrade above. The design for the interiors was based on those prevailing inItalian opera houses, and the formalvestibule is overlooked by grand marble steps leading to the concert hall. The auditorium itself includes four tiers of balconies, and its seating capacity is 730. The theatre serves as the home of the Provincial Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, the theatre has received international personalities such asErlend Øye andJohn Malkovich.
The public transport system includes buses, theMendoza trolleybus system, and taxis. The trolleybuses are more comfortable than the diesel buses, but are slower, not as numerous nor is the system as extensive. In 2008,TransLink ofVancouver, British Columbia, Canada, sold most of its old trolleybus fleet to Mendoza.[12]
Aheritage railway, El Tren del Vino (The Wine Train), is being planned which will also provide local transportation; it will run through wine-producing districts of Mendoza.[needs update][13]
A 17-kilometre (11 mi)light rail line, theMetrotranvía Mendoza, opened for regular service in October 2012.[14] It serves the areas ofLas Heras,Godoy Cruz andMaipú in theGreater Mendoza conurbation, as well as the central area of Mendoza itself. The line runs fromAvellaneda station in the Panquehua neighborhood of Las Heras toGutiérrez in Maipú, stopping also at the Mendoza Railway Station at the site of the former intercity passenger train station, near the city centre. The bright red railcars,Siemens-Duewag U2s, were purchased from theSan Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) in 2010. They were built in 1980.
Mendoza's development was helped partly due to its position at the start of theTransandine Railway linking it toSanta Rosa de Los Andes in Chile. It was the only railway operable between Argentina and Chile. After many years of inactivity, it remains currently abandoned.[15][16][17][18]
The railway is a1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in)metre gauge line, with sections ofAbt rack, whilst the railways it links with are both1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in)broad gauge. A journey from Buenos Aires to Chile involved twobreaks-of-gauge, and therefore two changes of train, one at Mendoza, and the other at Santa Rosa de Los Andes.
Argentina'sMalbec wines originate from Mendoza's high-altitude wine regions ofLujan de Cuyo and theUco Valley. These districts are located in the foothills of the Andes mountains between 2,800 and 5,000 feet elevation.[19][20][21][22]Vintner Nicolas Catena Zapata is considered the pioneer of high-altitude growing and was the first, in 1994, to plant a malbec vineyard at 5,000 feet above sea level in the Mendoza region. His family is also credited with making world-class wines and giving status to the wines of Argentina.[23]
The subject of elevation is of much interest to the wine world because with increased altitude, the intensity of the sunlight increases. The role of this increased light intensity is currently being investigated by Catena Zapata's research and development department headed up by Laura Catena, Alejandro Vigil and Fernando Buscema.
Seven Years in Tibet, directed by French directorJean-Jacques Annaud and starringBrad Pitt, was shot in and around Mendoza. Several dozens of sets were built, ranging from a 220-yard (200 m) long recreation of theTibetan capital city ofLhasa (built in the foothills of the Andes), to a 9,000-square-foot (840 m2) recreation of the Hall of Good Deeds in thePotala, the ancient palace of theDalai Lama (built in an abandoned garlic warehouse outside the city).
Mendoza appears as the penultimate level of the 2021 video gameHitman 3. It contains hints of Argentine culture, such asmate,tango, andwine production.
Mendoza's climate is characterised as anarid (Köppen climate classificationBWk);[24] withcontinental characteristics.[25] Most precipitation in Mendoza falls in the summer months (November–March).[25] Summers are hot and humid where mean temperatures exceed 25 °C (77 °F).[25] Average temperatures for January (summer) are 32 °C (90 °F) during daytime, and 18.4 °C (65.1 °F) at night.[26] Winters are cold and dry with mean temperatures below 8 °C (46.4 °F).[25] Night time temperatures can occasionally fall below freezing during the winter.[25] Because winters are dry with little precipitation, snowfall is uncommon, occurring once per year.[25] July (winter) the average temperatures are 14.7 °C (58.5 °F) and 2.4 °C (36 °F), day and night respectively.[26] Mendoza's annual rainfall is only 223.2 mm (8.8 in), so extensive farming is made possible by irrigation from major rivers. The highest temperature recorded was 44.4 °C (111.9 °F) on 30 January 2003, This previous record was surpassed by the new temperature record of 44.9 °C (112.8 °F) recorded on 16 December 2023,[27] while the lowest temperature recorded was −7.8 °C (18.0 °F) on 10 July 1976.[28]
Climate data forMendoza Airport, Argentina (1991–2020, extremes 1949–present)
Source 2:NOAA (percent sun 1961–1990),[26] Meteo climat (record highs and lows),[32] Oficina de Riesgo Agropecuario (November and December record high and May record low only)[28][27]
Climate data for Mendoza Observatory (1991–2020, extremes 1961–present)
^ab"Mendoza (Aero), Mendoza".Estadísticas meteorológicas decadiales (in Spanish). Oficina de Riesgo Agropecuario.Archived from the original on 30 June 2015. Retrieved11 June 2015.
^"Pesquisa de Legislação Municipal – No 14471" [Research Municipal Legislation – No 14471].Prefeitura da Cidade de São Paulo [Municipality of the City of São Paulo] (in Portuguese). Archived fromthe original on 18 October 2011. Retrieved23 August 2013.
