General Information

Buenos Aires is the third largest city in South America and is made up of 47 districts, inhabited by approximately 3 million people. These people referred to as Porteños, (Port People) are strongly characterized by their neo-latin language. This complex,energetic and seductive sea-port city was, for centuries, the gateway to Argentina. Favoured for its geographical position, at the mouth of a large river network, it is the departure point for numerous road and rail links. Surrounded by the almost unlimited Pampas, this vast urban area is a metropolis open twenty four hours a day.

Founded by Spanish immigrants in 1536, it became the capital of Argentina in 1880. During the Colonial Period the city grew, forming square-shaped districts around the Plaza de Mayo, which, even today, still preserves its beautiful colonial centre, where it is possible to admire the XVIII Century buildings in Peruvian Rococo and Portuguese style. During the second half of the Eighteenth Century, the city plan evolved, according to the French style of the Second Empire, with the formation of wide streets, from which the city radiated out in a semicircle around the colonial centre, with the river forming the semicircle’s axis.

The roads spanned out and continued along their way through the Pampas. Today’s urban network is a uniformed structure of wide roads (some, like the Avenida de Mayo and the Avenida 9 de Julio, are over 100 metres wide) which intersect at right angles numerous tree-lined squares. The way of life and the architecture here, are more noticeably European, than in any other place in South America. The city districts are small and strongly individual, each one having its own specific colours and shapes. The multi-ethnic inheritance of the city is embodied in its cosmopolitan architecture, where the Spanish Colonial style is placed side by side with the Italian eye for detail and the essentials of French Classicism. The physical structure of Buenos Aires is a varied mosaic, as diverse as the culture of its origins. It is impossible to single out a specific monument that represents the focal point of the city; there are a multitude of small places, each with its own intimate detail, special events and happenings, creating their own slightly different shapes, moods, and character. Glass skyscrapers cast their shadows on the XIX Century Victorian houses, while the tango bars fill with the cigar smoke of their regular customers and the antique shops, rich with numerous treasures, decorate the streets.