Gualeguaychú, Entre Ríos
Encyclopedia
Gualeguaychú is a city in the , on the left bank of the Gualeguaychú River
(a tributary
of the Uruguay River
). It is located on the south-east of the province, approximately 230 km north-west of Buenos Aires
. It has a population of 109,266 according to the 2011 Census.
The city is located near national route 14, a route growing in importance because it connects Argentina's capital Buenos Aires and São Paulo
in Brazil, the biggest city of South America, being one of the most important routes in Mercosur
.
The city hosts an annual carnival that is regionally well-known and attended by people from many other provinces and countries around the world. It is considered one of the largest carnivals in the world. Gualeguaychú also has hot springs
, beach resorts, and a casino
.
Near Gualeguaychú is Pueblo Belgrano, a municipality that belongs to the city, which is well-known for its hot springs. Gualeguaychú should not be confused with Gualeguay
, another city also in Entre Ríos
, located about 80 km (49.7 mi) west.
expression, “yaguarí guazú”, which would mean “calm water river”.
According to scholars of toponomy , there are other definitions such as "Slow-go Water" or "River of the Small Pig Caves" (with pig meaning boar
) the latter by the similarity to the word Gualeguay.
and Buenos Aires gave possession of these lands to settlers who founded precarious rural settlements in constant dispute with the native tribes. These conflicts resulted in series of campaigns and extermination and enslavement of the natives, who had been decimated by the mid-eighteenth century. In the final decades of the century, the number of people scattered throughout the area from Buenos Aires and Santa Fe, including Jesuit missionaries, increased. These inhabitants developed a subsistence economy and had conflicts with landowner settlers, who had already been settled there for decades.
In 1770, a settlement was established around a chapel in the south of Gualeguaychú.
In December 1777 the rancher Esteban Justo García de Zúñiga was appointed as the “commander of the parties of Gualeguaychú, Gualeguay and Uruguay".
In 1779 the bishop of Buenos Aires, Sebastián Malvar y Pinto, visited the zone. When he saw the precarious situation of the smallholders in comparison to the ranchers and Portuguese incursions, he decided to inform the viceroy about this. In 1782, Viceroy
Juan José de Vértiz y Salcedo
commissioned a sergeant major from Dragones de Almanza, Tomás de Rocamora
, to organize the villagers scattered in villages in the region to reinforce the Spanish presence in the area before the Portuguese incursions from the Banda Oriental
.
Gualeguaychú was founded on October 18, 1783 by sergeant Tomas de Rocamora under Viceroy Vértiz. When he arrived at the town Rocamora noticed that the place where the first settlement had been established was low and prone to flooding, so he decided to move it to the north, in front of Libertad Island.
According to the Indian’s laws, Rocamora cleared the land, took the measurement, assigned the public places, distributed 85 pieces of land, chose the members of the Primer Cabildo (the first town council) and appointed San José as the patron saint. Therefore, the town was called San José de Gualeguaychú.
, which connects the nearby town of Puerto Unzué with Fray Bentos
, Uruguay, across the Uruguay River. For years, the local residents had warned about the proposed installation of two large cellulose
processing plants, called Botnia, near Fray Bentos, which would allegedly pollute the river. In 2005, the Citizens' Environmental Assembly of Gualeguaychú took the step of blocking the Route 136 and the international bridge. Further blockades, sometimes lasting weeks, continued in 2006, seriously damaging the tourist season of Uruguay and causing major inconveniences to the trafficking of goods. The ecological cause of Gualeguaychú jumped to the national scene and the conflict escalated, leading to diplomatic and legal battles including an accusation before the International Court of Justice
. The final outcome is still to be seen.
, but also enjoying a recent increase in tourists from the provinces of Santa Fe and Cordoba attracted to the “Carnival of the Country” and city beaches.
The new bus terminal is located in the extreme south-west of the city. The passenger transport services are numerous and provide transportation links with the various parts of the country and abroad.
sacked the village. Liberty Island in the Gualeguaychù river in front of the city was where Justo José de Urquiza
organized the “Big Army”.
Clavarino Palace, where the activities take place in the Middle Level and Polimodal College Luis Clavarino, was founded on October 21, 1905. Méndez Casariego Bridge crosses the Gualeguaychú river to the Park Unzué and Pueblo General Belgrano, and the nature reserve "Las Piedras". The bridge was repaired in late 2007 because there was a danger of collapse.
The style of the theatre was inspired the Viennese Secession. The interior, consisting of the Chamber, is in the shape of a floor horseshoe and is surrounded by a lower tier of boxes.
The first level is a gathering area with corresponding boxes on the upper level and Paradise. This part was originally intended for lower social classes and used to have a separate entrance to Peron Street.
and Luis N. Palma (writers).
Current people of note from the city include Héctor Luis Castillo, Luis Lujan, Zulma Nicolini and Carla Olivera (writers), Oscar Eduardo Ayala and Rebora (sculptors), Albanese Raul Alberto Bonus Chesini Paula and Maria Ines Lopez (painters). Famous Gualeguaychuenses now living outside the city include Pedro Luis Barcia (President of the National Academy of Letters), Ramiro Casaux (set designer), the dancer Florencia Chinelatto (who is part of the Hamburg Ballet), Luisa Delfino (journalist), Gervasio Larrivey (theatrical makeup), Vanesa Martinelli (artist), Pipo Pescador (musician) and Veronica Vieyra (actress).
Gualeguaychú River
The Gualeguaychú River The Gualeguaychú River The Gualeguaychú River (Spanish, Río Gualeguaychú is a river in the province of Entre Ríos, Argentina. It starts in the center-east of the province, within the Colón Department, and flows south, passing by the city of Gualeguaychú and then emptying into...
(a tributary
Tributary
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...
of the Uruguay River
Uruguay River
The Uruguay River is a river in South America. It flows from north to south and makes boundary with Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of the Mesopotamia from the other two countries...
). It is located on the south-east of the province, approximately 230 km north-west of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
. It has a population of 109,266 according to the 2011 Census.
The city is located near national route 14, a route growing in importance because it connects Argentina's capital Buenos Aires and São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
in Brazil, the biggest city of South America, being one of the most important routes in Mercosur
Mercosur
Mercosur or Mercosul is an economic and political agreement among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Founded in 1991 by the Treaty of Asunción, which was later amended and updated by the 1994 Treaty of Ouro Preto. Its purpose is to promote free trade and the fluid movement of goods, people,...
.
The city hosts an annual carnival that is regionally well-known and attended by people from many other provinces and countries around the world. It is considered one of the largest carnivals in the world. Gualeguaychú also has hot springs
Hot Springs
Hot Springs may refer to:* Hot Springs, Arkansas** Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas*Hot Springs, California**Hot Springs, Lassen County, California**Hot Springs, Modoc County, California**Hot Springs, Placer County, California...
, beach resorts, and a casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
.
Near Gualeguaychú is Pueblo Belgrano, a municipality that belongs to the city, which is well-known for its hot springs. Gualeguaychú should not be confused with Gualeguay
Gualeguay, Entre Ríos
Gualeguay is a city in the province of Entre Ríos, Argentina, on the Gualeguay River, about 226 km from the provincial capital Paraná and 234 km north-west from Buenos Aires. It has a population of about 39,000 inhabitants as per the...
, another city also in Entre Ríos
Entre Ríos Province
Entre Ríos is a northeastern province of Argentina, located in the Mesopotamia region. It borders the provinces of Buenos Aires , Corrientes and Santa Fe , and Uruguay in the east....
, located about 80 km (49.7 mi) west.
Toponomy
The city took the name of the river that is next to it, Gualeguaychú. According to records from 1715 made by the priest Polycarp Dufoo, the name comes from the GuaraníGuaraní language
Guaraní, specifically the primary variety known as Paraguayan Guaraní , is an indigenous language of South America that belongs to the Tupí–Guaraní subfamily of the Tupian languages. It is one of the official languages of Paraguay , where it is spoken by the majority of the population, and half of...
expression, “yaguarí guazú”, which would mean “calm water river”.
According to scholars of toponomy , there are other definitions such as "Slow-go Water" or "River of the Small Pig Caves" (with pig meaning boar
Boar
Wild boar, also wild pig, is a species of the pig genus Sus, part of the biological family Suidae. The species includes many subspecies. It is the wild ancestor of the domestic pig, an animal with which it freely hybridises...
) the latter by the similarity to the word Gualeguay.
Past and Foundation
The land has been inhabited since pre-hispanic times by Chaná, Charrúa and Guaraní groups. From the 17th century, Spanish representatives from Santa FeSanta Fe, Argentina
Santa Fe is the capital city of province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It sits in northeastern Argentina, near the junction of the Paraná and Salado rivers. It lies opposite the city of Paraná, to which it is linked by the Hernandarias Subfluvial Tunnel. The city is also connected by canal with the...
and Buenos Aires gave possession of these lands to settlers who founded precarious rural settlements in constant dispute with the native tribes. These conflicts resulted in series of campaigns and extermination and enslavement of the natives, who had been decimated by the mid-eighteenth century. In the final decades of the century, the number of people scattered throughout the area from Buenos Aires and Santa Fe, including Jesuit missionaries, increased. These inhabitants developed a subsistence economy and had conflicts with landowner settlers, who had already been settled there for decades.
In 1770, a settlement was established around a chapel in the south of Gualeguaychú.
In December 1777 the rancher Esteban Justo García de Zúñiga was appointed as the “commander of the parties of Gualeguaychú, Gualeguay and Uruguay".
In 1779 the bishop of Buenos Aires, Sebastián Malvar y Pinto, visited the zone. When he saw the precarious situation of the smallholders in comparison to the ranchers and Portuguese incursions, he decided to inform the viceroy about this. In 1782, Viceroy
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, , was the last and most short-lived Viceroyalty of the Spanish Empire in America.The Viceroyalty was established in 1776 out of several former Viceroyalty of Perú dependencies that mainly extended over the Río de la Plata basin, roughly the present day...
Juan José de Vértiz y Salcedo
Juan José de Vértiz y Salcedo
Juan José de Vértiz y Salcedo was a Spanish colonial politician born in New Spain, and Viceroy of the Río de la Plata.-Biography:...
commissioned a sergeant major from Dragones de Almanza, Tomás de Rocamora
Tomás de Rocamora
Juan Tomás Julián Marcos de Rocamora y del Castillo was the governor of three provinces and the founder of several towns in Entre Ríos Province, Argentina....
, to organize the villagers scattered in villages in the region to reinforce the Spanish presence in the area before the Portuguese incursions from the Banda Oriental
Banda Oriental
The Banda Oriental del Uruguay was the South American territory east of the Uruguay River and north of the Río de la Plata, coinciding approximately with the modern nation of Uruguay, the Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Sul and some parts of Santa Catarina...
.
Gualeguaychú was founded on October 18, 1783 by sergeant Tomas de Rocamora under Viceroy Vértiz. When he arrived at the town Rocamora noticed that the place where the first settlement had been established was low and prone to flooding, so he decided to move it to the north, in front of Libertad Island.
According to the Indian’s laws, Rocamora cleared the land, took the measurement, assigned the public places, distributed 85 pieces of land, chose the members of the Primer Cabildo (the first town council) and appointed San José as the patron saint. Therefore, the town was called San José de Gualeguaychú.
20th century
During the first decades of the twentieth century, Gualeguaychú continued growing, with the population reaching 18,000 citizens by 1914. Further population growth was brought about by economic diversification, such as the installation of new cereal mills, the growth of business on the main street, 25 de Mayo. These factors as well as a port and Gualeguaychú’s railway station caused the city to expand well beyond the capital square (now called Plaza de San Martín).The conflict of the cellulose plants
Gualeguaychú is located near the international Libertador General San Martín BridgeLibertador General San Martín Bridge
The Libertador General San Martín Bridge is a cantilever road bridge that crosses the Uruguay River and joins Argentina and Uruguay. It runs between Puerto Unzué, near Gualeguaychú, Entre Ríos Province, Argentina, and Fray Bentos, Río Negro Department, Uruguay, with a total length of 5,966 meters ...
, which connects the nearby town of Puerto Unzué with Fray Bentos
Fray Bentos
Fray Bentos, the capital of the Río Negro Department of western Uruguay, is a port on the Uruguay River. It is close to the border with Argentina and about due north of Buenos Aires.-History:...
, Uruguay, across the Uruguay River. For years, the local residents had warned about the proposed installation of two large cellulose
Cellulose
Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to over ten thousand β linked D-glucose units....
processing plants, called Botnia, near Fray Bentos, which would allegedly pollute the river. In 2005, the Citizens' Environmental Assembly of Gualeguaychú took the step of blocking the Route 136 and the international bridge. Further blockades, sometimes lasting weeks, continued in 2006, seriously damaging the tourist season of Uruguay and causing major inconveniences to the trafficking of goods. The ecological cause of Gualeguaychú jumped to the national scene and the conflict escalated, leading to diplomatic and legal battles including an accusation before the International Court of Justice
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...
. The final outcome is still to be seen.
Tourism
Gualeguaychú is one of the touristic cities closest to the urban conglomerates in the provinces of Buenos Aires and Santa Fe and one of the most visited Argentine cities by international tourists. There is a high influx of tourists during the summer months, reaching up to 400,000, primarily from the Federal Capital and the province of Buenos AiresBuenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
, but also enjoying a recent increase in tourists from the provinces of Santa Fe and Cordoba attracted to the “Carnival of the Country” and city beaches.
The new bus terminal is located in the extreme south-west of the city. The passenger transport services are numerous and provide transportation links with the various parts of the country and abroad.
Carnival
‘The Carnival of the Country’ is a float-parade that takes part in the corsodromo (a place specially designed for this event), every Saturday of January, February and the 1st Saturday of March. It has an audience of about 40,000 people each night. The Carnival has five comparsas (a group of people that represents a club or a social centre) which are called Mari–Mari, Papelitos , Ara-Yeví, Kamar and O’Bahia. These comparsas compete against each other for a prize which consists of 31% of the money earned by the tickets however only three of them participate on any year. Approximately US$350,000 is spent by each comparsa. In 2011, the winner was Mari–Mari with the topic, Fobo.City progress
The original settlement progressed slowly. Bit by bit the poor houses started turning into brick houses. Buildings were built to be the new church and others places. During the anarchy between 1810 and 1853, Gualeguaychú was a place where the army used to pass through. In September 1845, soldiers commanded by Giuseppe GaribaldiGiuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...
sacked the village. Liberty Island in the Gualeguaychù river in front of the city was where Justo José de Urquiza
Justo José de Urquiza
Justo José de Urquiza y García was an Argentine general and politician. He was president of the Argentine Confederation from 1854 to 1860.He was governor of Entre Ríos during the government of Juan Manuel de Rosas, governor of Buenos Aires with powers delegated from the other provinces...
organized the “Big Army”.
Weather
The weather in the most parts of Entre Ríos is warm but during the winter months it can get to around 0 °C. Summer temperatures can reach up to and above 35 °C, .the average annual rainfall is about 1,200 mm and the average annual humidity is 75%.Unzué Park
One of Gualeguaychú’s most impressive features is Unzué Park, which is located on the opposing banks of the Gualeguaychú river. It is about 120 hectares in size and includes a lagoon.Thermal Baths
Gualeguaychú has two thermal baths open to the public, the Termas Guaychu and Complejo Termas del Gualeguaychù. The former has swimming pools with temperatures of up to 40ºC. Located in a large space surrounded by countryside, this location benefits from a wide variety of flora and fauna.Other attractions
The cornerstone of the Cathedral Church of St. Joseph, under the patronage of the Virgin of Rosario and St. Joseph, was laid May 30, 1863. Godfather ceremony was the Governor of Entre Rios, Justo José de Urquiza, who attended the ceremony with his wife Dolores Costa. The project was the work of Swiss architect Bernard Poncini and building was overseen by him and his brother, Roberto. The work was delayed but inauguration took place on March 19, 1890. By 1910 the towers and porch were completed. In 1959 due to a danger of collapse, the towers were demolished and replaced by the current domes.Clavarino Palace, where the activities take place in the Middle Level and Polimodal College Luis Clavarino, was founded on October 21, 1905. Méndez Casariego Bridge crosses the Gualeguaychú river to the Park Unzué and Pueblo General Belgrano, and the nature reserve "Las Piedras". The bridge was repaired in late 2007 because there was a danger of collapse.
Gualeguaychú Theatre
The theatre was founded in August 23, 1910 by Gustavo de Denken, José Casaretto, Bartolomé Raggio, Julián Irazusta, Nicolás Medrano and Enrique Sobral,The style of the theatre was inspired the Viennese Secession. The interior, consisting of the Chamber, is in the shape of a floor horseshoe and is surrounded by a lower tier of boxes.
The first level is a gathering area with corresponding boxes on the upper level and Paradise. This part was originally intended for lower social classes and used to have a separate entrance to Peron Street.
Culture
People of historical note from Gualeguaychú include Juan José Nágera (the father of the geology in Argentina), Julio Irazusta (historian), Manuel Almeida (archaeologist), Maria Luisa Guerra and Juan Manuel Gavazzo (pianists), Buchan, Juan Carlos Guastavino, Carlos Delgado Roustan (painters), Angel Vicente Méndez Gervasio Aráoz and Olegario Victor Andrade (poets) and Fray MochoFray mocho
Fray Mocho was the pen name for the Argentine writer and journalist José Ciriaco Alvarez . He was born in the remote village of Gualeguaychú in the Entre Ríos Province of Argentina on August 26, 1858. He came to Buenos Aires first in 1876 and then again in 1879 at the age of 21...
and Luis N. Palma (writers).
Current people of note from the city include Héctor Luis Castillo, Luis Lujan, Zulma Nicolini and Carla Olivera (writers), Oscar Eduardo Ayala and Rebora (sculptors), Albanese Raul Alberto Bonus Chesini Paula and Maria Ines Lopez (painters). Famous Gualeguaychuenses now living outside the city include Pedro Luis Barcia (President of the National Academy of Letters), Ramiro Casaux (set designer), the dancer Florencia Chinelatto (who is part of the Hamburg Ballet), Luisa Delfino (journalist), Gervasio Larrivey (theatrical makeup), Vanesa Martinelli (artist), Pipo Pescador (musician) and Veronica Vieyra (actress).