Rivera (Uruguay)

Rivera is a city in northern Uruguay, capital of the department of the same name. Bordering the city of Santana do Livramento (RS), Rivera has a population of 101,800 inhabitants, which amounts to 106,457 inhabitants counting the adjacent towns of Lagunón, La Pedrera, Mandubí and Santa Teresa, and is the department with the largest Afro-descendant population in all of Uruguay. The department has a high HDI of 0.767 and according to the 2011 census, the department has a GDP per capita between $8,000 and $8,800. The main economic sectors of the department are: -Forestation (with more than 178,000 hectares) -Rice (with 2296 hectares) -Cattle farming (with 588,000 heads) -Sheep farming (with 342,000 heads) -Honey -Mining (with 1.59 million tons of ore, 53,370 ounces of gold and 74,126 ounces of silver. -Viticulture (with 49 hectares and an extraction of 170 tons) -Freeshop and tourism and walk.

Location

It is located at the confluence of the Black Mountain with the Santa Ana Mountain, on the border with the Federative Republic of Brazil, it is conurbated with the Brazilian city of Santana do Livramento. They are united by a terrestrial and imaginary dividing line that extends through streets and avenues, oriented by demarcation structures called "frames". The main symbol of the integration of the two cities is the International Plaza. The set of both cities is known as Frontera de la Paz, it has a population of 170,000 inhabitants.

It is located in the north of the country, at the intersection of national routes 5 and 27. 500 km separate it from Montevideo.

History

Rivera's founding process was characterized by being slow and difficult due to its location in a wild and remote area, and also characterized by the presence of indigenous people, and the passage of smugglers. The area chosen for the establishment of the first rural settlers was the area of Puntas del Cuñapirú, in the vicinity of Santana do Livramento, which had been founded on July 30, 1823 as "Nossa Senhora do Livramento". Since the beginning of the second half of the XIX century, there was already the concern and interest of both locals and legislators, to create in the region a town on the Uruguayan side that would allow the consolidation of the border with Brazil.

On April 19, 1859, a bill was presented for the creation of the "Town of Pereira", which would be located between the Hospital and San Luis streams. The project was finally approved in March 1860 and promulgated days later. However, an important Brazilian landowner, Mr. Francisco Antunes Maciel, offered five thousand patacones (six thousand pesos) for the town to be founded between Cerro de Vichadero and the Blanco stream. Thus, on April 19 of the same year, another bill was presented that contemplated the creation of the town "Arenal Grande", between the Cuñapirú and Tacuarembó streams, in an area close to the current location of the city. This project underwent some modifications in the Senate, such as increasing the area and common land of the city, as well as replacing the previous name with that of "Pedro de Ceballos", in honor of the former viceroy of the Río de la Plata.

Finally, on May 7, 1862, the then president Bernardo Prudencio Berro approved the law creating the “Villa de Ceballos”. Its first article stated: "The Executive Branch will order the delineation of a town in the Santa Ana ridge, on our border line, in front of the Brazilian town of Santa Ana do Livramento." In 1867, although the town had not yet been officially inaugurated, it had a settled population and its first public school. For that year the population was about 341 inhabitants between the area of the town and its farms. On June 26 of that same year, a decree was issued authorizing the Political Chief of Tacuarembó (at that time the department of Rivera had not yet been created) to create a town, whose name would be Rivera, in honor of Colonel Bernabe Rivera; Said town would be located at a distance of 20 or 30 blocks from Santa Ana do Livramento, in the place where there were already some houses, or failing that, in the one that was deemed most appropriate in terms of the proximity of resources such as water and firewood. On July 17, 1867, the Political Chief of Tacuarembó, Carlos Reyles, arrived at the border and complied with the decree, drawing up on July 20, 1867 the founding act of the Rivera Town, in Cuñapirú, fourth section of the department of Tacuarembó. Immediately the surveyor José Pompilio Luppi took charge of the delineation of the town, marking the blocks and streets.

On October 1, 1884, the department of Rivera was created, which was segregated from that of Tacuarembó, with the limits it currently possesses. Meanwhile, the town of Rivera became the capital of the new department. The following 20 years were difficult, due to the boom in cattle smuggling to Brazil, permanent conflicts with Brazilian civil and military authorities, epidemics of smallpox, typhus, and dysentery, as well as the civil war that ended in Masoller in 1904 with the death of General Aparicio. Saravia. Years later, on June 10, 1912, the town was elevated to the category of city by law 4,006.

Population

Avenida Sarandí, main commercial area of the city of Rivera.

According to the last census in 2011, the city had a population of 78,900 inhabitants, of whom 37,509 were men and 41,391 women. Together with the Brazilian city of Santana do Livramento they form a conurbation of 170,000 inhabitants.

Services

View of the street that separates Uruguay and Brazil from Cerro del Marco.

Education

It has 4 kindergartens, 31 public primary schools, 2 schools for the intellectually disabled, one for the hearing impaired, as well as a music school. At the secondary level, it has 8 public high schools, it also has 2 UDELAR headquarters that have some careers, and a UTEC.

In private education there is a kindergarten, 6 primary schools, and 6 high schools.

Health

The city has a departmental hospital dependent on ASSE, as well as two sanatoriums belonging to the COMERI (Rivera Medical Cooperative) and CASMER (Rivera Medical Assistance Center) mutuals.

Security

In Rivera is the headquarters of the departmental Police Headquarters, whose unit was created on October 2, 1884. The three police sections in charge of maintaining public order and crime prevention in the city depend on this Headquarters, they are the 1st, 9th and 10th sections.

There are also other units that depend on the Headquarters, they are the Community Police, BEPRA (Special Brigade for the prevention and repression of rustling), the Immediate Response Group and the Departmental Jail.

Transportation

Panoramic of the city of Rivera from Cerro Marconi.

Urban transportation

For several decades, the departmental capital has had urban passenger transportation, which consists of 13 bus lines (urban buses), operated by three companies, that connect the peripheral neighborhoods with the city center.

Departmental and interdepartmental bus service

With other localities, neighboring cities and with Montevideo it is connected through regular bus services, which depart and arrive at the departmental bus terminal located in the downtown area. Among the interdepartmental bus services, the destinations to Montevideo (provided by the companies Turil, Núñez and Agencia Central), Artigas (Rutas de Oro), Paysandú and Tacuarembó (COPAY company), Melo (Posada and Nuñez companies), Ansina (companies Posada, Onda Marina and MB Viajes), San Gregorio de Polanco (Posada company), Fray Bentos (ETA company) and Salto (Chadre company). The departmental services are destined for the towns of Tranqueras and Masoller (companies Coit and Rutas de Oro), Minas de Corrales (companies Machado, Rutas de Oro, Rimasil and Onda Marina), Las Flores (companies MB Viajes) and Vichadero (companies Núñez and Jota Turismo).

Airport

The city has an airport, Cerro Chapeu Presidente Oscar Gestido International Airport, which is currently not operational for commercial airlines. There is an intention to declare it a Binational Airport.

Roads

Two important national routes come together in the city of Rivera:

• Route 5: joins the city with the south of the country, among the cities it connects stand out: Tacuarembó, Paso de los Toros, Durazno, Florida Canelones and Montevideo. It also serves as a connection to routes 30 that leads to Tranqueras and Artigas, and 29 to Corrales Mines.
• Route 27: connects Rivera to the town of Vichadero, and connects to routes 6 and 28.

Railway

Rivera is the last station of the Montevideo-Rivera railway line, which for many years operated passenger services through it, and which also had a connection with the city of Porto Alegre. Currently this line is only used for cargo transportation.

On December 19, 2018, after more than 18 years of absence, the State Railway Administration reopened the passenger line that connects Rivera with the city of Tacuarembó.

Places of interest

View of the Atilio Paiva Olivera Municipal Stadium.

Plaque placed in the International Square on the border between Brazil and Uruguay, in the towns of Rivera and Livramento

Among the prominent places is the Church of the Immaculate Conception, inaugurated in 1891, and declared a national historic monument. In front of it, the Plaza Artigas is located, which is the main square of the city. In it there is a sculpture by José Gervasio Artigas inaugurated in 1953, a work carried out by the Spanish sculptor Pablo Serrano. Originally, the square was called "October 1", in homage to the date the department was created in 1884. Years later, it was renamed "Río Branco", until it finally received the current name of Plaza Artigas.

Sarandí Avenue is the main avenue and where the main commercial area of the city is located. In it, the classic Free Shops of the border stand out. Not far from there is the steps of Cerro Marconi, one of the most beautiful places with a panoramic view of the city.

The Plaza Internacional, inaugurated on February 26, 1943, in the midst of World War II, is an international monument to world peace and the coexistence of peoples. It is located on an extensive border area, which is why it unites the two cities and becomes a tourist center for them. In this square there are several monuments: the obelisk, the fountain, the statue in tribute to the mother, as well as the flags of Brazil and Uruguay.

Parque Gran Bretaña, located 7 km from the city center, is the main riverside departmental park. Its name honors the British ambassador in Uruguay Sir Eugen Millington Drake, who on behalf of the United Kingdom government donated the property where it's located. It was inaugurated on September 5, 1939 and declared a national historic monument in 1981. It is located on Cuchilla Negra, with an area of 50 hectares, as well as an area for camping.

The Atilio Paiva Olivera Stadium is also located in the river capital, built in 1927 and modified twice in 1966 and in 1995, the latter for the 1995 Copa América. Its current capacity is 27,135 people.

Another important sports arena close to Parque Gran Bretaña is the Eduardo P. Cabrera Autodrome, reopened in 2013, where national and international motor racing and motorcycling competitions are held in different categories.

In 2012, an important shopping center was inaugurated, the Siñeriz Shopping, which has various stores, including a cinema, restaurants, bookstores and the Free Shop Siñeriz, the largest in the country.

Neighborhoods

According to the departmental administration, the city is made up of 40 neighborhoods, they are:

Climate

Like the rest of the country, Rivera enjoys a humid subtropical climate (Cfa, according to the Köppen climate classification), with an average annual temperature of 18.1 °C.

Rivera's average climate parameters
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Average temperature (°C)	30.1	29.2	27.1	23.4	20.4	16.9	17.1	18.5	20.3	23.5	26	28.8	23.4
Average temperature (°C)	24.1	23.5	21.6	18.1	15.3	12.3	12.3	13.4	15	17.9	20.5	22.8	18.1
Temp. medium (°C)	18	17.9	16.4	13	10.1	7.5	7.6	8.4	9.7	12.3	14.4	16.8	12.7
Total precipitation (mm)	149	155	147	135	117	102.	132	118	152	163	141	128	1639
Precipitation days (≥ 1mm)	8	7	8	7	7	8	9	8	8	8	7	6	91
Relative humidity (%)	69	71	75	78	79	80	80	77	75	73	71	68	75
Source: DNM Uruguay average 1960-1990

Sister Cities

• Santana do Livramento, Brazil