Montevideo

Sister cities

• Marsico Nuovo
• Rosario
• Laayoune
• Santa Fe
• La Plata
• Ulsan
• Santo Domingo
• São Paulo
• Daejeon
• Cádiz
• Melilla
• Curitiba

History

Between 1680 and 1683, Portugal founded the city of Colonia do Sacramento in the region across the bay from Buenos Aires. This city met with no resistance from the Spanish until 1723, when they began to place fortifications on the elevations around Montevideo Bay. On 22 November 1723, Field Marshal of Portugal built the Montevieu fort. A Spanish expedition was sent from Buenos Aires, organized by the Spanish governor of that city, Bruno Mauricio de Zabala. On 22 January 1724, the Spanish forced the Portuguese to abandon the location and started populating the city, initially with six families moving in from Buenos Aires and soon thereafter by families arriving from the Canary Islands who were known as Guanches or Canarians. There was also one significant early Italian resident by the name of Jorge Burgues. A census of the city's inhabitants was performed in 1724 and then a plan was drawn delineating the city and designating it as San Felipe y Santiago de Montevideo, later shortened to Montevideo. The census counted more than 100 families of Galician and Canary Islands origin, more than 1000 indigenous people, mostly Guaraní, as well as some trafficked slaves of Bantu origin. Until the end of the 18th century, Montevideo remained a fortified area, today known as Ciudad Vieja. On 3 February 1807, British troops under the command of General Samuel Auchmuty and Admiral Charles Stirling occupied the city during the Battle of Montevideo (1807), but it was recaptured by the Spanish in the same year on 2 September when John Whitelocke was forced to surrender to troops formed by forces of the Banda Oriental—roughly the same area as modern Uruguay—and of Buenos Aires. After this conflict, the governor of Montevideo Francisco Javier de Elío opposed the new viceroy Santiago de…

Geography

Montevideo is situated on the north shore of the Río de la Plata, the arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates the south coast of Uruguay from the north coast of Argentina; Buenos Aires lies west on the Argentine side. The Santa Lucía River forms a natural border between Montevideo and San José Department to its west. To the city's north and east is Canelones Department, with the stream of Carrasco forming the eastern natural border. The coastline forming the city's southern border is interspersed with rocky protrusions and sandy beaches. The Bay of Montevideo forms a natural harbor, the nation's largest and one of the largest in the Southern Cone, and the finest natural port in the region, functioning as a crucial component of the Uruguayan economy and foreign trade. Various streams crisscross the town and empty into the Bay of Montevideo. Its coastline near the emptying rivers are heavily polluted. The city has an average elevation of . Its highest elevations are two hills: the Cerro de Montevideo and the Cerro de la Victoria, with the highest point, the peak of Cerro de Montevideo, crowned by a fortress, the Fortaleza del Cerro at a height of . Closest cities by road are Las Piedras to the north and the so-called Ciudad de la Costa (a conglomeration of coastal towns) to the east, both in the range of 20 to from the city center. The approximate distances to the neighboring department capitals by road are, to San Jose de Mayo (San Jose Department) and to Canelones (Canelones Department). Montevideo has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) in a middle latitude, the city experiences the four seasons. It has cool winters (June to August), warm to hot summers (December to February), mild autumns (March to May) and volatile springs (September to November); The…

Most-observed species

• Rufous Hornero

  Furnarius rufus (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  6,347
• Great Kiskadee

  Pitangus sulphuratus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  6,293
• Picazuro Pigeon

  Patagioenas picazuro (Temminck, 1813) · Aves
  6,173
• Monk Parakeet

  Myiopsitta monachus (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  5,721
• Eared Dove

  Zenaida auriculata (Des Murs, 1847) · Aves
  5,361
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,566
• Rufous-bellied Thrush

  Turdus rufiventris Vieillot, 1818 · Aves
  4,336
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  4,132