Meli Pillan

Melipilla lies in the Maipo valley west of Santiago, where the river approaches the coastal ranges of central Chile. Indigenous inhabitants cultivated the valley and practised pottery and irrigation before Spanish settlement. In 1742 Governor José Antonio Manso de Velasco founded the villa of San José de Logroño on a plain near the northern bank of the Maipo. The indigenous name Melipilla remained in use and eventually prevailed over the official Spanish name.