The city of Puerto Varas, also known as "La ciudad de las rosas" or �the city of roses�, was founded in 1854 by Vicente P�rez Rosales.
Puerto Varas is a city located in southern Chile a territory of northern Patagonia in the Los Lagos Region. The Chilean Patagonia starts at Latitude 39� South in Valdivia and then it continues through the Chiloe Island and the fiords that continue its course south through the Pacific Ocean and the Cordillera de los Andes until it reaches Latitude 56� South at Cape Horn.
The city is named after Antonio Varas, minister of the interior during the presidency of Manuel Montt, when the city was founded. The Montt administration offered lands around Lake Llanquihue for mostly German speaking Europeans (Germans, Swiss,Austrians, Silesians, Alsatians, etc.) to settle and farm those lands. Puerto Varas was founded as the main port on the lake, connected by road to the nearest seaport, Puerto Montt. This homeste ading program continued through the remainder of the 19th century. So at the end of that year came the first German colonists who settled the shores of Lake Llanquihue. Arriving the following families from Germany: Beck, Bittner, Hoffmann, Gebauer, Klenner, Kuschel, Luckeheide, Minte, Mittesteiner, Muller, Nettig, Schminke, Schwabe, Schwalz, Strauch, Tampe, Vyhmeister, Von Bischofshausen, among many others
