History Gallery History of the city

The foundation of Puerto Varas goes back to 1853, when governmental actions wanted to incorporate inhospitable territories of the south of Chile.

When the Colonization Territory of Llanquihue Lake was created by Supreme Decree of the Ministry of the Interior in June 27 of 1853, a group of immigrants who came from Germany settled gradually in the zone.

For that reason, the first 212 German colonizers installed near of the Llanquihue Lake, in the zone of La Fabrica, where the road from Melipulli finished. German families like Bittner, Von Bischofshausen, Gebauer, Nettig, Schminke, Klenner, Vyhmeister, Schwabe, Luckeheide, and Minte settled in this place.

The road was prolonged another sector of the lake, where a governmental refuge was built and a sloop vessel crossed the colonizers to their houses. It was “Puerto Chico”, that has a meaning role because the colonizers had communication and transportation with continental Chile by the Llanquihue Lake. However, it can be named a town or a village, because there was not an objective that joined this people.  But the effort of the settlers made this township was developed.

Puerto Varas was so developed that in the end of the last century has a lot of houses and for this reason asked for the Government the recognition of “Village” that was given by decree Nº 4838, on October 30, 1897.

Another important fact was the connection of the longitudinal train rail, which increased the numbers of passengers and transportation of burdens. So, the development process was accelerated considerably in the central zone that now is known like “Puerto Varas”. 

On July 6, 1859 was delimitated the sub delegations and districts of the Llanquihue Lake, giving the District Nº 1 of the sub delegation Nº 2 to Puerto Varas, for the sake of Minister of the Interior, Mr. Antonio Varas de la Barra. 

This decree gave the first organization of the internal governmental authority in Puerto Varas, because it had a District Inspector in the territory of Todos Los Santos Lake, Osorno Volcano, Llanquihue Lake, Maullín River, The Andes and the Arrayán River.    

The promoter of the development of Puerto Varas was the mayor Teobaldo Kushel, who headed the municipality for 13 years and  become the city a place for the tourism.   

The Town Council (La Comuna) was established in December 30, 1925 by decree Nº 8583 of the Interior Ministry, which dived into Province, Departments and Town Councils (comunas).   

The building of the Panamericana Highway was important because this zone was connected with continental Chile in 1960. Moreover, peripheral roads were made for communicating the villages located on the banks of the Llanquihue Lake. For this reason, the lacustrine transportation decreased.   

Geographical Description of  the Town Council

The Puerto Varas Town Council is located in the south extreme of the country, between the coordinates 41º20’ of south longitude and 72º57’ of west longitude. It has an area of 4.087 km², corresponding to 6% of the regional area and 26% of the Provincia.

The Puerto Varas Town Council belongs to Llaquihue province. It is part of the five provinces that form La Región de los Lagos.

The regional characteristics can be described by its limitations. On the east is the Andes, which most important hills are Tronador Hill (3.470 mt) Osorno Volcano (2.661mt) and the Calbuco Volcano (2.015mt). The most important rivers that came from those ones are the Petrohué River and Pescado River, which finally flow into the sea.

In the central zone it can be seen small hills that are not taller than 100mt.

The most important elements of the zone is the Llanquihue Lake and the Todos los Santos River, which are the most important lacustrine places. “La cordillera de la Costa” has hills that are not taller than 300mt.

Population and actual situation of the Town Council.

According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the census of April, 2002, the population of the Puerto Varas was 33.322 people, with a variation of 25,6%. 

The total projected population is the 3,13% of the total population of the Region de los Lagos, which means 8,15 habitants per km².

According to the 2002 census, the urbanization grade of the population establishes that a 68% of the population lives in urban zones, and a 32% lives in rural zones, with wide rural zones that has few population. 

The most important places of the town council are Puerto Varas, Nueva Braunau, Ensenada, La Fabrica, Colonia Tres Puentes, Colonia Río Sur, Río Pescado, Ralún, Petrohué, Peulla, Santa María and a zone of the new satellite town named Alerce.

The city of Puerto Varas is considered one of the most important urban downtowns that have more than 100.000 people that organized the rest of the regional urban system.

In the distribution of the population by sex there are more men than women; it is 50,2% y 49% respectively, but it tenders to be equilibrated in the urban zones.