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Hanga Roa
Hanga Roa (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈ(x)aŋɡa ˈroa]; Rapa Nui: Haŋa Roa [ˈhaŋa ˈɾoa] ⓘ, long bay or wide bay) is the main town, harbour, and seat of Easter Island, a municipality of Chile. It is located in the southern part of the island's west coast, in the lowlands between the extinct volcanoes of Terevaka and Rano Kau.
In 1868 HMS Topaze anchored off Hanga Roa. At the time the Government of the area was known as the Conseil d’Etat. It was made up of Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier, Gaspard Zuhmbohm and four chiefs from the Miru clan.
Upon Chile's claim of the island, the Rapa Nui were forced in Hanga Roa, and the rest of the land was leased to a sheep farm. For much of the twentieth century, the rest of the island was leased to the Compañía Explotadora de la Isla de Pascua (CEDIP) (a subsidiary of Williamson-Balfour Company) and closed to the Rapa Nui.
From December 12, 1934, to January 2, 1935, a merchant navy training ship anchored in the bay of Hanga Roa, allowing the landing of a Franco-Belgian scientific expedition. This expedition took back a statue (that of Pou Hakanononga, god of tuna fishermen), now preserved in the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, as well as a monumental head offered to the museum of the Trocadéro Palace in Paris. The inhabitants were not able to give their opinion on the departure of this statue, which was negotiated between the Franco-Belgian scientists and the Chilean colonial authorities.
Until 1953, most of the territory, under the control of the Chilean authorities, was given over to sheep owned by the Williamson–Balfour company. The indigenous inhabitants, for their part, were confined to the island’s only settlement, the town of Hanga Roa, and were forbidden to leave it. Hanga Roa has been compared to a ghetto by several Oceanist researchers. From 1953 to 1966, Hanga Roa and the rest of the island were under the control of the Chilean Navy.
The church of Hanga Roa and the parish of Santa Cruz were founded in December 1937. Its first parish priest was Father Sebastian Englert. Although he celebrated Mass in Latin, he preached, heard confessions, and catechized the faithful in the Rapa Nui language. He also translated popular Catholic devotions into Rapa Nui and encouraged indigenous religious singing.
In 1965, the United States Army undertook the construction of an airstrip near the village of Mataveri, close to Hanga Roa. In 1986, the United States extended the runway so that it could receive the American space shuttle in the event of an emergency landing for flights taking off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but it was never used for that purpose. The following year, Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva promulgated Law No. 16,411 creating the Department of Easter Island (Departamento de Isla de Pascua), which also made it possible to grant Chilean citizenship to all the island’s inhabitants, along with the right to vote. This law also established the creation of an island municipality and formalized the installation of various public services of the Chilean state in the territory. The island was then attached to the Valparaíso Region of Chile. The first commercial air links between Santiago de Chile, Hanga Roa, and Papeete (French Polynesia) began in 1967 and were operated by the national airline LAN Chile.
During the last decades of the 20th century, the modest village of Hanga Roa was transformed into a small town with urban facilities: a market, a school, a church, and later hotels, a bank, a hospital, and various other administrative and commercial buildings appeared.
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Hanga Roa AI simulator
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Hanga Roa
Hanga Roa (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈ(x)aŋɡa ˈroa]; Rapa Nui: Haŋa Roa [ˈhaŋa ˈɾoa] ⓘ, long bay or wide bay) is the main town, harbour, and seat of Easter Island, a municipality of Chile. It is located in the southern part of the island's west coast, in the lowlands between the extinct volcanoes of Terevaka and Rano Kau.
In 1868 HMS Topaze anchored off Hanga Roa. At the time the Government of the area was known as the Conseil d’Etat. It was made up of Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier, Gaspard Zuhmbohm and four chiefs from the Miru clan.
Upon Chile's claim of the island, the Rapa Nui were forced in Hanga Roa, and the rest of the land was leased to a sheep farm. For much of the twentieth century, the rest of the island was leased to the Compañía Explotadora de la Isla de Pascua (CEDIP) (a subsidiary of Williamson-Balfour Company) and closed to the Rapa Nui.
From December 12, 1934, to January 2, 1935, a merchant navy training ship anchored in the bay of Hanga Roa, allowing the landing of a Franco-Belgian scientific expedition. This expedition took back a statue (that of Pou Hakanononga, god of tuna fishermen), now preserved in the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, as well as a monumental head offered to the museum of the Trocadéro Palace in Paris. The inhabitants were not able to give their opinion on the departure of this statue, which was negotiated between the Franco-Belgian scientists and the Chilean colonial authorities.
Until 1953, most of the territory, under the control of the Chilean authorities, was given over to sheep owned by the Williamson–Balfour company. The indigenous inhabitants, for their part, were confined to the island’s only settlement, the town of Hanga Roa, and were forbidden to leave it. Hanga Roa has been compared to a ghetto by several Oceanist researchers. From 1953 to 1966, Hanga Roa and the rest of the island were under the control of the Chilean Navy.
The church of Hanga Roa and the parish of Santa Cruz were founded in December 1937. Its first parish priest was Father Sebastian Englert. Although he celebrated Mass in Latin, he preached, heard confessions, and catechized the faithful in the Rapa Nui language. He also translated popular Catholic devotions into Rapa Nui and encouraged indigenous religious singing.
In 1965, the United States Army undertook the construction of an airstrip near the village of Mataveri, close to Hanga Roa. In 1986, the United States extended the runway so that it could receive the American space shuttle in the event of an emergency landing for flights taking off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but it was never used for that purpose. The following year, Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva promulgated Law No. 16,411 creating the Department of Easter Island (Departamento de Isla de Pascua), which also made it possible to grant Chilean citizenship to all the island’s inhabitants, along with the right to vote. This law also established the creation of an island municipality and formalized the installation of various public services of the Chilean state in the territory. The island was then attached to the Valparaíso Region of Chile. The first commercial air links between Santiago de Chile, Hanga Roa, and Papeete (French Polynesia) began in 1967 and were operated by the national airline LAN Chile.
During the last decades of the 20th century, the modest village of Hanga Roa was transformed into a small town with urban facilities: a market, a school, a church, and later hotels, a bank, a hospital, and various other administrative and commercial buildings appeared.