Recommended Photos Collections: Sails South America 2010, Valparaiso

Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation (Greater Valparaíso) and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region. Although Santiago is Chile's official capital, the National Congress of Chile was established in Valparaíso in 1990. Valparaíso played an important geopolitical role in the second half of the 19th century, when the city served as a major stopover for ships traveling between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by crossing the Straits of Magellan. Always a magnet for European immigrants, Valparaíso mushroomed during its golden age, when the city was known by international sailors as “Little San Francisco” and “The Jewel of the Pacific.”

Examples of Valparaíso’s former glory include Latin America’s oldest stock exchange, the continent’s first volunteer fire department, Chile’s first public library, and the oldest Spanish language newspaper in continuous publication in the world. The opening of the Panama Canal and reduction in ship traffic dealt a staggering blow to Valparaíso, though the city has staged an impressive renaissance in recent years. Though nearby San Antonio has taken the reins as the country’s most commercially important seaport (greater tonnage moved), the City of Valparaíso remains a vibrant center of Chilean culture, and the Greater Valparaíso metropolitan area (which includes Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, Quilpué and Villa Alemana) has the third largest concentration of population in the country after Greater Santiago and Greater Concepción.

Read more about this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valpara%C3%Adso

Cerro Concepción, Valparaíso, Chile

1952-built Pullman-Standard trolleybus No. 715 in Valparaíso, Chile, in 1996. It is traveling east on Calle Condell at the south end of Plaza Victoria. This vehicle and several other Pullman trolleybuses are still in regular use (for normal public transit service) in 2010

Picture of Valparaiso (Chile), focussing on one of the funiculars (ascensores in Chilean Spanish) that link the harbor region to the hills

Fotografía de la Biblioteca Santiago Severin

Edificio de El Mercurio de Valparaíso

Arco Británico, Valparaíso, Chile

La Sebastiana, Pablo Neruda's house in Valparaíso, Chile

Ascensor Artillería (Artilleria Funicular) in Valparaíso

Imagen del trazado del es:Metro de Valparaíso en la ciudad homónima, tomada por es:Usuario:Der schöne Tod

Trolleybus with the Customs House in the background in Valparaíso, Chile

Iglesia de San Francisco, Cerro Barón, Valparaíso, Chile

Valparaiso, Chile

Palacio de Tribunales de Valparaíso, otoño 2007

Vista desde el mar de la ciudad de Valparaíso

Vista caractarística de valparaíso y su arquitectura

Año Nuevo sobre la Bahía de Valparaíso, en Chile; inicio del espectáculo llamado "Año Nuevo en el Mar", el más extenso en escenario natural del mundo, esperando ser el mas grande del mundo para el año 2010