La Oroya
| La Oroya | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
Rail station
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|
 La Oroya
|
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| Coordinates: 11°31′19″S 75°54′36″W / 11.522°S 75.910°WCoordinates: 11°31′19″S 75°54′36″W / 11.522°S 75.910°W | |
| Country |
 Peru
|
| Region | Junín |
| Province | Yauli |
| District | La Oroya |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Cesar Augusto Gutierrez Revilla |
| Elevation | 3,745 m (12,287 ft) |
| Population | |
| • Estimate (2015) | 24,476 |
| Time zone | PET (UTC-5) |
| Website | www.oroya.com.pe |
La Oroya is a city of about 33,000 people on the River Mantaro in central Peru. It is situated on the Andes some 176 km east-north-east of the national capital, Lima, and is capital of the Yauli Province. La Oroya is the location of a smelting operation that earned the town a place on the Blacksmith Institute's 2007 report, "The World's Worst Polluted Places".
Settlement at La Oroya dates to about 10,000 years BC. In 1533, the Spanish established a small settlement and started small-scale mining for precious metals in the area, but isolation and transport difficulties hindered extraction. At the time of the War of Independence, the area's strategic position made it a center of guerrilla activity; one of the decisive battles of the war, Chacamarca (Junin), took place nearby, and Simón Bolívar passed through the town after the battle. In 1861, the settlement was named San Jeronímo de Callapampa and in 1893 it became La Oroya. In 1925, La Oroya was designated the capital of the Yauli province and finally, in 1942, it was elevated to city status.
Mining in the area developed gradually, and did not greatly expand until the railway from Lima to La Oroya was completed in 1893. The railway, an extraordinary feat of engineering, was planned by the Polish railway builder Ernest Malinowski, and crosses the Ticlio Pass, where it reaches an altitude of 4781 meters. Until the recent completion of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway it was the highest standard gauge railway in the world.
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Wikipedia