Montevideo, Uruguay

Montevideo is the capital of Uruguay and that nation's administrative, economic, and cultural center. The city was originally founded by Spanish colonial forces in the eighteenth century as a military garrison designed to counter rival Portuguese territorial designs. It eventually developed into one of South America's major seaports and trading centers. The 1985 restoration of civilian governance marked the beginning of Montevideo's slow emergence from decades of neglect and political repression. On the heels of the 2004 elections that empowered a progressive coalition of leaders committed to economic and democratic reforms, Montevideo has slowly but surely made progress in its ongoing effort to recover some of its former vibrancy.

Landscape

Montevideo is located in southern Uruguay. The city sits on the northern bank of the Río de la Plata estuary on the Atlantic Ocean. It features miles of river shoreline, paralleled by the thoroughfare known as La Rambla, and a large, natural harbor that is one of the busiest in South America.

The capital's main thoroughfare, Avenida 18 de Julio, runs the length of the city from the Plaza Independencia, which lies between Montevideo's Old City (Ciudad Vieja) and its more modern neighborhoods. While the historic quarter reflects the capital's colonial Spanish heritage, other parts of Montevideo display the architectural influences of its sizeable community of citizens of Italian origin.

Montevideo enjoys a mild climate in which the average January (summertime) temperature is 23 degrees Celsius (73.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and the average July (winter) temperature is 10.7 degrees Celsius (51.3 degrees Fahrenheit). The city frequently experiences strong winds during the winter and spring. The cold winter wind known as the pampero, which frequently blows into Montevideo from the Argentine pampas, sometimes produces damaging effects on the capital's homes and buildings.

Beginning in 2020, Uruguay experienced the longest drought in its history. The drought lasted for three-and-a-half years. While experts do not believe that climate change caused the drought, global warming likely exacerbated the dry conditions. Montevideo was nearly dry. Its main water source, the Paso Severino Reservoir, had only 9 percent of its normal capacity.

People

Montevideo was home to about half of Uruguay's total population of 3.4 million as of 2023. According to the US Central Intelligence Agency, about 1.77 million people lived in Montevideo in 2023. Throughout the twentieth century, many people from rural areas of the country moved to the capital in search of economic opportunity. However, Montevideo itself has experienced an outflow of some of its best-educated citizens drawn by the higher salaries available in Buenos Aires and other nearby South American cities.

Most of Montevideo's inhabitants are of European extraction, with single-digit-percentage minorities consisting of people of mestizo (mixed European and indigenous ancestry) or African ancestry. Citizens of Italian origin constitute the largest single group of the European-descended population, making up as much as a third of this group.

The US Central Intelligence Agency reported in 2023 that 42 percent of Uruguay's population identified as Catholic and 15 percent as Protestant. Around 24 percent claimed no religious affiliation. There are also small Jehovah's Witness, Mormon, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, and other faith communities. Large numbers of Montevideo's Jews immigrated to Israel during the 1970s and 1980s.

Economy

Montevideo's economy revolves around the international import-export market. Millions of tons of cargo pass through its seaport en route primarily to destinations in North America and China each year. The port also sees hundreds of thousands of passengers and hundreds of cruises annually. The cargo terminal for Montevideo's airport, International Airport of Carrasco, handles all of the country's imports and exports delivered by air. Meanwhile, several Montevideo-area free trade zones provide commodity-trading, financial, information-technology, logistical, outsourcing, and other professional services, as well as manufacturing items like pharmaceuticals.

Agricultural production has become an important part of Montevideo's economy as well. The historic Mercado Agrícola, based on the design of Les Halles in Paris, France, is the primary retail center devoted to selling fresh produce and other foods. An agricultural park produces seeds, raises goats, and trains local farmers. A substantial portion of the southern Atlantic fishing fleet is based out of Montevideo. Finally, the government invested in an agricultural park devoted to wholesale trade in produce and supply-chain management for the region's agricultural producers.

Tourism, and the services sector that supports it, is an important and growing facet of Montevideo's economy. The city's historic landmarks attract many visitors, particularly Argentines and Brazilians, as do the city's river shore beaches. The water quality at the capital's beaches, however, is generally not as healthy as that found along the ocean coastline, so many tourists spend time in Montevideo as a starting point before setting out for nearby resort destinations.

After cannabis was legalized in 2013, a number of pharmacies around Montevideo began supplying medicinal and recreational products to domestic consumers; however, banking rules hampered development of that industry and a black market continued to thrive largely because of tourist demand. Some Uruguayan producers began exporting medicinal cannabis to other countries where it had been legalized.

Landmarks

Many of Montevideo's most notable landmarks are in its Old City, which is dominated by the Plaza Independencia. Looming over the square is an enormous marble statue of Uruguay's most famous national hero, José Gervasio Artigas, a revolutionary leader regarded as the father of Uruguayan independence. A mausoleum containing Artigas' ashes is built into the statue's base and illuminated nightly by spotlight. It is also the site of a daily changing of the guard ceremony. The city and river port of Artigas is located in northwestern Uruguay.

Additional Old City landmarks include the eighteenth-century Palacio Estévez, which housed Uruguay's government until 1985 and the Palacio Salvo, which was the tallest building in South America when it was built in 1928. The Palacio Salvo's northwest tower dominates the Montevideo skyline. The Teatro Solís was inaugurated in 1856 and is considered the oldest continuously operating major venue for operas, concerts, and ballet in the Americas. The neoclassical, three-story Palacio Legislativo, built in 1908, houses a number of important artistic works.

Other points of interest in Montevideo are the Puerta de la Ciudadela, a colonial-era stone gateway linking the Old City to the more modern section of the capital. The Iglesia Matriz is Montevideo's domed-bell-towered cathedral and the capital's oldest intact building. The Iglesia Matriz dates to 1784 and is the burial place of a number of prominent Uruguayan historical figures. The Mercado del Puerto was considered South America's premier port market when it first opened in 1868, and still serves as a major market with restaurants and entertainment on the weekends.

Montevideo is home to a number of notable museums and galleries. The National History Museum's collections are distributed among four restored historic houses in the Old City. The Casa Rivera, which dates to 1802, displays indigenous artifacts and colonial oil paintings, including a panoramic depiction of late eighteenth-century Montevideo. The Museo del Gaucho y de la Moneda is devoted to the history and culture of Uruguayan cowboys, as reflected in the museum's collections of traditional gaucho clothing, tools, and similar items, as well as ornately outfitted stuffed horses.

History

The first European to set foot on the site of present-day Montevideo was the Spanish conquistador Juan Díaz de Solís, in whose honor the capital's Teatro Solís is named. Solís arrived in 1516, but he and most of his followers were quickly massacred by indigenous people.

More than two centuries would pass before Montevideo was officially founded by the Spanish governor of Buenos Aires in 1726. Anxious to counter the growing power of the Portuguese, who had already founded settlements in the area, the Spanish built a citadel at Montevideo. The settlement served primarily as a garrison town during its early years but its location on a natural harbor eventually led to its transformation into a major regional trading center.

During the early decades of the twentieth century, however, Montevideo's fortunes declined as the city was overrun by occupying forces from a succession of squabbling foreign powers from Britain, Spain, Argentina, Portugal, and Brazil. Uruguay's 1828 declaration of independence ushered in a brief period of stability for the new capital.

In 1843, Montevideo was once again caught in the crossfire of a conflict in which the French and English succeeded in blockading Buenos Aires. Although the Argentines laid siege to Montevideo for nine long years, the city nonetheless thrived in the absence of competition from its closest rival city.

Montevideo was eventually eclipsed in power and prestige by Buenos Aires, which became and remains the region's most important city. By the mid-to-late twentieth century, Montevideo was a city hobbled by a languishing economy and harsh military rule. Impoverished rural migrants nonetheless poured into the capital, filling multifamily tenements and shantytowns. In the following years, however, the government's efforts at democratic and economic reforms have enabled the capital to recapture some of its former vibrancy.

Civilian rule resumed in 1985. Around the turn of the twenty-first century, the government launched investigations into disappearances under the military regime, and in the late 2000s and early 2010s, some former officials were prosecuted for past crimes.

In 2007, Montevideo became the headquarters of Mercosur, a major South American trade organization.

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