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Description

Eighteenth-Century Dutch View of Valparaíso, Chile

Detailed view of the port city published in 1766 by Isaac Tirion in Amsterdam. The city is one of Chile’s most important ports.

The view shows Valparaíso from the bay. Fortifications and buildings dot the famous hills of the area. Three ships are sailing in the foreground, to emphasize the settlement’s importance even before its industrialization and growth as a port in the nineteenth century.  

A key is listed on both sides of the title at the bottom of the print. It translates as:

  1. The fortress called White Castle (Castello-blanco)
  2. A battery
  3. The stain (Het Vlek or la Mancha) or the high city
  4. The low city

As indicated by the presence of the fort and battery, Valparaíso was a fortified town on the Chilean coast, one of several Spanish fortresses that sprinkled the western coast of South America. Prior to Spanish colonization, the bay was populated by Picunche and Chango peoples. When the Spanish arrived in 1536, Juan de Saavedra, their leader, named the bay for his town in Spain, Valparaíso de Arriba.

The fort, called San José or Castillo Blanco, was first constructed in 1678-82, with modifications to 1692. Today, the fort is almost entirely forgotten, lost in the rapid growth of the city in the nineteenth century. This is a rare glimpse of Valparaíso when it was a coastal town, not the mighty port it would become after the construction of the first pier in 1810.  

Isaak Tirion Biography

Isaak Tirion was a prominent Dutch publisher based in Amsterdam in the eighteenth century. He is best known for historical works that included prints showing scenes from around the world. He also produced maps, such as those in the Nieuwe Hand-Atlas of 1744.