The History of the city of Cauquenes, arises according to the first historical records of Alonso de Ercilla, which indicated that the sector was inhabited in the first instance by the Promaucaes del Maule, in an indigenous settlement.
The city of Cauquenes was founded on May 9, 1742, under the name of Villa de Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes by José de Manso del Tutuvén, in the lands of the cacique Ascensio Galdámez and his wife Micaela de Araya, which donated the 307 blocks of land located between the Tutuvén and Cauquenes rivers to the Spanish kingdom. Its founder, the Governor of the Kingdom of Chile, José Antonio Manso de Velasco, founded the city as part of the Chilean urbanization process with defensive and community purposes. The name of the city changed with time: first it was called Villa de Cauquenes and finally, Cauquenes.
In 1857 the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Cauquenes was built.
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