Montevideo

Montevideo

Understand History There are several theories about the origins of the city's name. The "monte" part is generally considered to be the hill where the Cerro fort is now. According to one theory the hill was named "Monte-VI-D-E-O(este)", which translates to Mountain six (VI in Roman numerals) From East to West. Another popular theory is that a member of Ferdinand Magellan's world circumnavigation would have shouted "Monte vide eu!", which translates to "I see a mountain!" when seeing the hill – however, the circumnavigation happened two centuries before the foundation of the city so it might well have been another mountain he saw. Construction of the Cerro fort, at the time called Montevieu fort, was started by the Portuguese in 1723. The following year the Spanish started building the city of Montevideo on the opposite side of the bay where Ciudad Vieja is now, and occupied and colonized the rest of the region. During its almost 300 years of existence, Montevideo has been part of the Spanish and Portuguese empires, occupied by the British for…

Source: Wikivoyage · CC BY-SA 4.0.