Gran La Plata (Greater La Plata) is an urban agglomeration formed around the city of

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the , it has a population of 654,324 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 787,294 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from th ...

, in

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. It includes the

Berisso Berisso is a city and the head town of the '' partido'' of Berisso in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It forms part of the Greater La Plata urban area and has a population of approximately 95,021 as of 2001. People Berisso was founded by Ital ...

and Ensenada '' partidos'' (departments).

Location

Gran La Plata is located to the south of the

Greater Buenos Aires Greater Buenos Aires ( es, Gran Buenos Aires, GBA), also known as the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area ( es, Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires, AMBA), refers to the urban agglomeration comprising the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and the adjac ...

agglomeration next to

Rio de La Plata Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

. To a small extent, the two metropolitan areas have slowly begun to merge. Nevertheless, the main centres remain separated by two dense forest reserves: the " Punta Lara jungle" ("''Selva marginal''") by the River Plate, and the "Pereyra Iraola Park" ("Parque Pereyra Iraola") a few kilometers inland.

History

The cities of

and Ensenada existed well before

and were both candidates to become the capital city of

once Buenos Aires city was federalized in 1880. Eventually, it was decided to build a new city, La Plata, entirely designed to serve as the provincial capital. It was founded in 1882. Soon after, irregular suburbs began to appear outside the designed limits of La Plata. These suburbs would go on to become an integral part of

La Plata Partido La Plata is a partido (department) in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, some southeast of the city of Buenos Aires. It has an area of , and a population of 774,369 (). Its capital is La Plata, which also serves as the capital of the province. ...

municipality. Neighboring Berisso and Ensenada, on the

Río de la Plata The Río de la Plata (, "river of silver"), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and fo ...

shore, acted from then on as natural harbors for the new capital city of the Province, and gradually they also became integrated as a conurbation into Greater La Plata.

Population

Notes

{{coord missing, Argentina Metropolitan areas of Argentina La Plata