Temuco is a city and commune, capital of the Cautín Province and of the Araucanía Region in southern Chile. The city is located 670 km south of Santiago at the heart of the modern Araucanía Region and historic Araucanía—the land of the Mapuche who resisted Spanish conquest.
Temuco was founded by Chilean military in Mapuche territory 1881 during the occupation of Araucanía and grew quickly into one of Chile's main cities. Temuco grew as a consequence of the livestock, wheat and forestry boom that its surrounding countryside experienced between 1890 up to the 1940s. Nobel Poets Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda both lived in Temuco for some time.
Temuco's central place in Araucanía with easy access to the Andean valleys and the coast makes it a hub for agricultural, livestock and forestry operations as well as communication and trade centre for the numerous small towns of Araucanía.
Read more about Temuco: Etymology, History, Geography, Demographics, Climate, Administration, Transport, Important Places, Other Features