Kolchawwe

The Colchagua valley lies in central Chile, where the Tinguiririca and Cachapoal rivers descend from the Andes towards the coastal range. Before Spanish conquest, Picunche communities inhabited the district, including groups whom the Spaniards called Promaucaes. Each community had its own chief. In the sixteenth century the conquerors granted indigenous people and lands in the valleys to settlers under the encomienda system, beginning a long transformation of the rural landscape.