Mercedes is a city in the center of the . It is a first-class municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 with a population of about 35,000 inhabitants , and the head town of the department of the same name, which also includes the towns of Felipe Yofre and Mariano I. Loza. It is located 275 km from the provincial capital (Corrientes

Corrientes

Corrientes is the capital city of the province of Corrientes, Argentina, located on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, about from Buenos Aires and from Posadas, on National Route 12...

), and 739 km from 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...

.

Mercedes is in the middle of an important livestock-raising area and hosts large livestock expositions and fairs. It has a Historical and Fine Arts Museum, as well as a Natural History Museum with more than 1,000 animal samples. A sanctuary in memory of the Gauchito Gil

Gauchito Gil

The Gauchito Gil is a legendary character of Argentina's popular culture). His full name was Antonio Mamerto Gil Núñez) and he was allegedly born in the area of Pay Ubre, nowadays Mercedes, Corrientes, possibly in the 1840s, and died on 8 January 1878).-The legend:Popular accounts vary, but in...

(a popular religious/folkloric icon) is located 10 km away from the city.