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About Ushuaia
Learn more about the beautiful Ushuaia, located on the southern tip of Argentina. There you'll find scenic vistas, ancient glaciers, and even penguins.
Ushuaia (; Spanish pronunciation:) is the of , Argentina. It was regarded as the .[2][3]
About
Ushuaia is located in a wide
on the southern coast of , bounded on the north by the range, and on the south by the . It is the only in the Department of Ushuaia, which has an area of 9,390 km2 (3,625 sq mi). It was founded on October 12, 1884 by and is located on the shores of the Beagle Channel surrounded by the mountain range of the , in the Bay of Ushuaia. Besides being an administrative center, it is a light industrial port and tourist hub. Ushuaia is roughly located 800 kilometres (500 mi) from the coast of and 635 kilometres (395 mi) from the Chilean city of .Toponymy
The word Ushuaia comes from the Yaghan language: ush and waia ("bay" or "cove") and means "deep bay" or "bay to background". The act creating the subprefecture in 1884 cites the name "Oshovia", one of the many orthographic variations of the word.[4] Its demonym is "Ushuaiense".
The name is often pronounced "u-sua-ia" (Spanish pronunciation: [uˈswaʝa]), an exception to the orthographic rules of Spanish, since the 's' forms a syllable with the following 'u' despite the intervening 'h'. The pronunciation "Usuaía" (accented on the 'i') is erroneous: the prosodic accent is on the first 'a', which is why the word is written without an accent mark.
History
The , also called the Ona, first arrived in about 10,000 years ago. The southern group of people indigenous to the area, the (also known as Yámana), occupied what is now Ushuaia, lived in continual conflict with the northern inhabitants of the island.[6]
For much of the latter half of the 19th century, the eastern portion of Tierra del Fuego was populated by a substantial majority of nationals who were not Argentine citizens, including a number of British subjects. Ushuaia was founded informally by British missionaries, following previous British surveys, long before Argentine nationals or government representatives arrived there on a permanent basis. The British ship , under the command of Captain , first reached the channel on January 29, 1833, during its maiden voyage surveying .[7] The city was originally named by early missionaries[8] using the native name for the area. Much of the early history of the city and its is described in ’s book Uttermost Part of the Earth (1948). The name Ushuaia first appears in letters and reports of the [8] in England. The British missionary [9] became the first European to live in Ushuaia when he stayed with the Yámana people between 18 January and mid-September 1869. In 1870 more British missionaries arrived to establish a small settlement. The following year the first marriage was performed. During 1872, 36 baptisms and 7 marriages and the first European birth (Thomas Despard Bridges) in Tierra del Fuego were registered.[10] The first house constructed in Ushuaia was a pre-assembled 3 room home prepared in the in 1870 for Reverend . One room was for the Bridges family, a second was for a Yámana married couple, while the third served as the chapel.[11]
Building of the Government of the province in the city of Ushuaia, with typical local architecture.
Thomas Bridges learned the Yaghan (coastal dwellers) language and was a fluent speaker. To a lesser extent he was able to communicate in the Ona (forest dwellers) language. His missionary work was mainly directed at the Yaghans. The word Yamana simply means "people" in the Yaghan language. He wrote a dictionary of the Yaghan language, the original manuscript of which is in the British Museum. As the Yaghans had no ability nor means to write, Thomas Bridges had to construct an alphabet which was suited to the phonetics of the language. The original manuscript was lost three times but recovered and almost published under an incorrect name. More than one alphabet has been used over the years in the rendering of this dictionary. The odyssey of the manuscript covered nearly half a century before it was finally published. Natalie Goodall was instrumental in reprinting the dictionary in 1987 and providing valuable insights into the history of Thomas Bridges' work. Copies of the dictionary provide material on the letters and pronunciations used which in many respects differ from the alphabet used in the English language. (Ref: A de la Rue).
During 1873, Juan and Clara Lawrence, the first Argentine citizens to visit Ushuaia, arrived to teach school. That same year , who later served as Argentine President twice, promoted the establishment of a for re-offenders, modeled after one in , , in an effort to secure permanent residents from and to help establish Argentine over all of Tierra del Fuego.[12][13] But only after the did formal efforts get under way to establish the township and its prison.
During the 1880s, many gold prospectors came to Ushuaia following rumors of large gold fields, which proved to be false.[14][15] On 12 October 1884, as part of the South Atlantic Expedition, established the sub-division of Ushuaia,[16] with the missionaries and naval officers signing the Act of Ceremony. Don Feliz M Paz was named Governor of Tierra del Fuego and in 1885 named Ushuaia as its capital. In 1885 the territory police was organized under Antonio A. Romero with headquarters also in Ushuaia. But it was not until 1904 that the Federal Government of recognized Ushuaia as the capital of Tierra del Fuego.[17]
Ushuaia suffered several epidemics, including , , and , that much reduced the native population. But because the Yámana were not included in census data, the exact numbers lost are not known. The first census was held in 1893, which recorded 113 men and 36 women living in Ushuaia. The prison was formally announced in an by the then-Acting President Roca in 1896.[10] By 1911 the Yámana had all practically disappeared, so the mission was closed.[18] The population grew to 1,558 by the 1914 census.
In 1896 the prison received its first inmates, mainly re-offenders and dangerous prisoners transferred from , but also some political prisoners. A separate military prison opened in 1903 at the nearby . The two prisons merged in 1910, and that combined complex still stands today.[9][19] Thus, during the first half of the 20th century, the city centered around the prison built by the Argentine government to increase the Argentine population and to ensure Argentine sovereignty over Tierra del Fuego.[12][13] The prison was intended for repeat offenders and serious criminals, following the example of the British in and the French in .[13] Escape from Tierra del Fuego was similarly difficult, although two prisoners managed to escape into the surrounding area for a few weeks.[12] The prison population thus became forced colonists and spent much of their time building the town with timber from the forest around the prison. They also built a railway to the settlement,[20] now a tourist attraction known as the (Tren del Fin del Mundo), the southernmost railway in the world.
Argentine Navy seaplane, one of the first to arrive to Ushuaia in the 1930s
The prison operated until 1947, when President closed it by executive order in response to the many reports of abuse and unsafe practices.[9][19] Most of the guards stayed in Ushuaia, while the prisoners were relocated to other jails farther north. After the prison closed, it became a part of the (in Spanish), functioning as a storage and office facility until the early 1990s.[21] Later it was converted into the current Museo Maritimo de Ushuaia.[22]
The naval base at Ushuaia was active during the of 1982. The Argentine cruiser , subsequently sunk by the British Fleet, sailed from the Port of Ushuaia, where a memorial was erected in February 1996.
Physical Geography
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