San Jorge is a village or populated centre in the

Durazno Department Durazno (; ) is a Departments of Uruguay, department of Uruguay. Its capital is Durazno. Its name means ''"peach"'' in Spanish language, Spanish, referring to the department's peaches and its status as an agricultural breadbasket. It is located i ...

of central

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

Geography

The village is located on Route 100, about northeast of its junction with Route 14 and northeast of the department capital city of

Durazno Durazno is the capital city of the Durazno Department, department of Durazno in Uruguay. Geography The city is located at the intersection of Route 5 (Uruguay), Routes 5 and 41, in the south of the department, close to the borders with the depar ...

. The artificial lake

Lago Rincón del Bonete __NOTOC__ Lago, which means "lake" in several languages, may refer to: Places *Lago, Calabria, a ''comune'' in the Province of Cosenza, Italy *Lago, Mexico, a municipality zone in the State of Mexico *Lago District, a ''distrito'' in Niassa Provin ...

is north of the village and the stream Arroyo Chileno to the east. This stream flows in a wide vale that floods when the lake has high waters. Because of this, the circumventing road connecting the village with its nearby town of Blanquillo is about long. The nearest populated place to San Jorge is the village Aguas Buenas, to the southeast.

History

San Jorge was established as a British enclave in the 19th century. The

estancia An estancia or estância is a large, private plot of land used for farming or raising cattle or sheep. Estancias are located in the southern South American grasslands of Chilean and Argentine Patagonia, while the ''pampas'' have historically bee ...

San Jorge was a centre of industrial and agricultural modernization: land was fenced off to secure private property,

afforestation Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees in an area where there was no recent tree cover. There are three types of afforestation: natural Regeneration (biology), regeneration, agroforestry and Tree plantation, tree plan ...

took place, there were advances in cattle breeding techniques, and a

flour mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

was constructed. In 1897, residents of San Jorge were the first British riders to play

polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

on Uruguayan soil. Since 2004, the village has held the Encuentro Británico-Oriental, an annual festival featuring a parade, horseback riding contests, music, stands selling handcrafted goods, as well as a tour to historical points of interest.

Population

In 2011 San Jorge had a population of 502. Source: ''Instituto Nacional de Estadística de Uruguay''

References

External links

INE map of San Jorge
Populated places in the Durazno Department {{Durazno-geo-stub