Chile's river city where sea lions steal fish from the market stalls — where Valdivia sits at the confluence of the Valdivia, Calle-Calle, and Cruces Rivers (a braided river system so wide that the city feels more like an island cluster than a landlocked place), the Mercado Fluvial (the riverside fish market beside the Calle-Calle bridge where 15–20 South American sea lions have learned to position themselves at fishmongers' stalls and steal the catch in full view of tourists — one of the most-photographed wildlife encounters in Chile) is 400 metres from the main plaza, the Forts of Valdivia (a UNESCO-listed system of 17th–18th century Spanish fortifications defending the river mouth — the largest network of colonial fortifications in the Americas) are accessible by river boat from the city, and the Cervecería Kunstmann (brewing German-style ales since 1915, a legacy of the 10,000 German immigrants who settled the Chilean Lake District from 1850) sits on a river bend 3 km upriver
Valdivia (170,000 city; 200,000 metro) is the capital of the Los Ríos Region in southern Chile — a river-city in the Chilean Lake District 840 km south of Santiago, founded by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia in 1552 and devastated by the Great Valdivia Earthquake of 1960 (the largest earthquake ever recorded in human history, 9.5 Mw). Valdivia is the wettest large city in Chile (2,500 mm annually) and has a distinctive German-influenced culture from the 1850s immigration wave.
Valdivia was founded by Pedro de Valdivia in 1552 but was destroyed and refounded multiple times due to Mapuche resistance. The Destruction of the Seven Cities (1599–1604 CE) — a coordinated Mapuche uprising led by the toqui Pelantaro — obliterated all seven Spanish settlements south of the Biobío River and expelled Spain from southern Chile for 60 years. Valdivia was not resettled until 1645, when Spain recognised its strategic value for defending the Pacific coast from Dutch and English privateers. The Great Valdivia Earthquake of May 22, 1960 (9.5 Mw — still the largest recorded earthquake…