The sector is currently located where the city was inhabited by the pre-Hispanic village called Viluma or Vilumanque (Mapudungún Snakes and condors).

[1] One of the reasons to establish La Serena was to control Mapuche groups that had begun to migrate north following the Spanish founding of Santiago in 1541.

[4] Indeed, northern Mapuche groups appear to have responded to the Spanish conquest by abandoning their best agricultural lands and moving to remote parts away from the invaders.

[5][6] During the 17th century, the city suffered repeated attacks from privateers[citation needed], including Francis Drake who opened the Pacific route to the English in 1578.

Bartholomew Sharp, who partly burned and looted in 1680, and Edward Davis, who set fire to the convent of Santo Domingo in 1686, caused great fear among the population, forcing the defence of the city in 1700.

[citation needed] Between 1948 and 1952, president Gabriel González Videla prepared the Plan Serena, a project in which the city was renewed with investments and urban redevelopment that would imprint a single seal on the country.

Its traditional architecture consists of a series of housing and public buildings, of late 19th-century vintage style, built with wood from the US state of Oregon brought to Chile as counterweight in vessels sailing to the nearby port of Coquimbo to load copper and other minerals for transport back to the US.

In 1920, he began to take shape a new economic boom in the mining of iron, attracting capital and human contingent, resulting in a further change in the urban structure.

In the center of the city until 2008, it is still not possible to identify buildings over eight stories high for a municipal status, however towards the coastal area of the Avenida del Mar, one begins to see a great real estate boom that is distinguished by high-rise buildings, ranging from La Serena running south and along the coast to the neighboring city of Coquimbo.

In 2002 155,815 persons lived in the city proper, and La Serena was part of the country's fourth largest conurbation (pop.

La Serena has a cool desert climate, similar to nearby places in that it is clearly seasonal – in summer there is an absence of precipitation, but with abundant morning cloudiness and drizzle.

As a commune, La Serena is a third-level administrative division of Chile administered by a municipal council, headed by a mayor who is directly elected every four years.

The commune is represented in the Senate by Sergio Gahona Salazar (UDI), Daniel Núñez Arancibia (PC) and Matías Walker Prieto (PDC) as part of the fourth senatorial constituency (Coquimbo Region).

The population doubles in the summer months, [citation needed] principally for the beaches, recreational activities, musical festivals, concerts, and Fashion Week.

In this city there are located branches of the more important chain stores of the country, Mall Plaza La Serena, which has the national shops Falabella and París.

Also Mall Puerta Del Mar, contains two supermarkets, and regional multistores, such as La Elegante, and shops for home and construction.

The town has retained its historic architecture and this, along with a selection of beaches (known as Avenida del Mar, "Sea Avenue"), has caused the city to become a significant tourist destination, attracting many foreigners (most of them Argentines from San Juan and Mendoza provinces) during January, and later Santiago residents fleeing February heat.

In recent years the La Serena Song Festival (created in 2004) has been gaining national importance, due to the high quality of the invited artists.

Today, the only railroad that passes through parts of the city carries iron ore from El Romeral mine to Guayacán's port in Coquimbo.

The city relies on a bus station to provide transport from La Serena to most of the country, as well as an airport with daily flights to Santiago, Antofagasta, Arica, Copiapó and other destinations.

Since 2007, there has been a professional tennis tournament, the Challenger de La Serena, on the courts of the Estadio Universidad del Mar, in which the first champion was the Argentine Mariano Zabaleta.

[citation needed] The city of La Serena holds a wide variety of schools, lyceums and universities, concentrating great part of the academical offer in the region.