Talcamávida

Talcamávida is a town in the commune of Hualqui in the Biobío Region of Chile. It is located on the north bank of the Bio Bio River across from Santa Juana on the opposite shore. It occupied a plain along the river 42 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean that is part of a small valley surrounded by to the north by a high wooded mountainous area. It is 40 kilometers from Yumbel, to the east northeast, 24 km from Hualqui and 47 km from Concepcion to the north.

To the north of Talcamávida was the Quilacoya River and riachuelo of Millahue, in whose valleys and mountains Pedro de Valdivia forced the people of the Moluche rehue of Quilacoya to work in the rich gold mines there. His successor García Hurtado de Mendoza was the first that established a small fort there in 1560. It was destroyed more than once by the neighboring natives, and was rebuilt under the government of Pedro Porter Casanate. It was not settled until the time of the governor Manuel de Amat y Juniet, who rebuilt the fort again and populated it as the town of San Rafael de Talcamávida, in 1756. In 1821 it was burned by the same royalist force that set fire to Santa Juana. In 1872 it became a rail station on the line between Concepcion and San Rosendo.