Jesus de Huenuraquí was a Spanish fort on heights to the north of the north bank of the Bio Bio River, next to the site of the modern rail station of Huenuraquí, in the commune of San Rosendo

San Rosendo

San Rosendo is a Chilean city and commune in Biobío Province, Biobío Region.The city of San Rosendo lies on the gentle slopes of a hill overlooking the confluence of the rivers Biobío and Laja, which respectively bound the city to the west and south...

. It is eight kilometers west of San Rosendo

San Rosendo

San Rosendo is a Chilean city and commune in Biobío Province, Biobío Region.The city of San Rosendo lies on the gentle slopes of a hill overlooking the confluence of the rivers Biobío and Laja, which respectively bound the city to the west and south...

 and ten kilometers south of the town of Rere, Chile

Rere, Chile

Rere is a town in the commune of Yumbel, Province of Biobío, in the Biobío Region of Chile. It takes its name from the Moluche aillarehue that occupied both sides of the Claro River and was part of the Butalmapu between the Itata and Bio Bio Rivers...

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Fort de Jesus was erected in 1593 by Governor

Royal Governor of Chile

The Royal Governor of Chile ruled over the Spanish colonial administrative district known as the Kingdom of Chile. This district was also called the Captaincy General of Chile, and as a result the Royal Governor also held the title of a Captain General...

 Martín García Oñez de Loyola

Martín García Óñez de Loyola

Don Martín García Óñez de Loyola was a Spanish Basque soldier and Royal Governor of Chile.-Early life:...

 jointly with the fort of Chivicura

Chivicura

Chivicura was a fort erected in 1593 by the Royal Governor of Chile, Martín García Oñez de Loyola on the south bank of the Biobío River, to the west of the confluence of the Rele River with the Bio Bio, in what is now the commune of Santa Juana, Chile...

 across the Bio Bio on the south bank. They were erected to secure the communications of the city of Santa Cruz de Coya

Santa Cruz de Coya

Santa Cruz de Coya was a city established by the governor of Chile Martín García Oñez de Loyola on the site of the fort of Santa Cruz de Oñez, in 1595. It was named for his wife Beatriz Clara Coya, a member of the royal Incan house...

 in Catirai

Catirai

Catirai or Catiray is the region of the Moluche Aillarehue of Catiray in old Araucanía. It is now the Santa Juana commune of the Concepción Province and the Nacimiento commune of the Biobío Province of the Biobío Region, of Chile...

. Both forts and the city were destroyed by the Moluche

Moluche

Moluche or Nguluche is a dialect of the Mapuche language Mapudungun that is also the ethnic description of the Mapuche peoples speaking that language. At the beginning of the Conquest of Chile by the Spanish Empire the Moluche lived in what came to be known as Araucanía...

 in 1599. Fort de Jesus was rebuilt by Alonso de Ribera

Alonso de Ribera

Alonso de Ribera de Pareja was a Spanish soldier and twice Spanish royal governor of Chile .-Early life:...

 in 1602 as Fuerte de Huenuraquí as part of the fort system of La Frontera

La Frontera (geographical region)

La Frontera is name given to a geographical region in Chile, between the Bío-Bío and Toltén Rivers, now part of the administrative regions of Bío-Bío and Araucanía...

. The Mapudungun

Mapudungun

The Mapuche language, Mapudungun is a language isolate spoken in south-central Chile and west central Argentina by the Mapuche people. It is also spelled Mapuzugun and sometimes called Mapudungu or Araucanian...

 name comes from huenu, "above", and from raqui, the Moluche sound for the voice of the bird that in Chile is called the bandurria, the Black-faced Ibis

Black-faced Ibis

The Black-faced Ibis is a species of bird in the Threskiornithidae family. It is found in grassland and fields in southern and western South America. It has been included as a subspecies of the similar Buff-necked Ibis, but today all major authorities accept the split...

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