Bío Bío River
Concepción was founded by Don Pedro de Valdivia in 1550 north of the Bío Bío River, at the site which is today known as Penco. At that time it was given the name "Concepción de María Purísima del Nuevo Extremo" (Mary Immaculate Conception of the New End). The new settlement of Concepción was just a few kilometers north of "La Frontera" (The Frontier), the boundary between Spanish territory and the land of the Mapuche, an American Indian ethnic group that remained independent until the 1870s. The settlement was formally recognized by the Spanish authorities as a town two years later by a royal decree. It was given a coat-of-arms that is still in use today.