Monte Hermoso is a town located on the Atlantic coast of

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 ...

, some east of the city of Bahía Blanca, in the south of the

Province of Buenos Aires 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 ...

. It is the administrative seat of the partido of Monte Hermoso. Founded at the beginning of the twentieth century, Monte Hermoso is a family seaside resort with more than of beach overlooking the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

and with the unique characteristic in Argentina of having both sunrises and sunsets over the sea. The summer climate of Monte Hermoso is more temperate than that of other major seaside resorts due to the

sea breeze A sea breeze or onshore breeze is any wind that blows from a large body of water toward or onto a landmass; it develops due to differences in air pressure created by the differing heat capacities of water and dry land. As such, sea breezes ar ...

effect, while the water itself is warmer, making for a pleasant

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc sh ...

experience. Monte Hermoso owes its existence to the 1879 purchase of 4,000 seaside hectares (10,000 acres) by Esteban Dufaur. His son, Sulpicio, created the ''El Recreo''

estancia An estancia is a large, private plot of land used for farming or raising cattle or sheep. Estancias in the southern South American grasslands, the ''pampas'', have historically been estates used to raise livestock, such as cattle or sheep. In Pu ...

in 1910, and in 1918, began welcoming guests with the inaugural of the ''Hotel de Madera''; the hotel was built by Dafaur with lumber salvaged from a shipwreck on the shore. The settlement was established as such in 1975, and given autonomy on April 1, 1979. The lighthouse, ''Faro Recalada a Bahia Blanca'', high and the tallest in South America, is situated on the coastal road to Sauce Grande about east of the resort, where it marks the route to the nearby port of Bahía Blanca. Prefabricated in France by the same construction company, ''Barbier Bernad and Turenne'' that built the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed "' ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, it was erected in Argentina under the direction of Engineer Luigi, who also supervised the construction of the nearby naval base at

Puerto Belgrano Port Belgrano Naval Base ( es, Base Naval Puerto Belgrano - BNPB) is the largest naval base of the Argentine Navy, situated next to Punta Alta, near Bahía Blanca, about south of Buenos Aires. It is named after the brigantine ''General Be ...

. Opened on 1 January 1906, the staffed lighthouse, painted in red and white and giving out a white flash every 9 seconds, comprises an octagonal pyramidal cast iron tower with a central cylinder lantern and gallery. Guided tours of the lighthouse are provided daily.

References

External links

*
Official siteInformative siteMaps and informationNews (Spanish)Tourism (Spanish)Informative and commercial siteRecalada Lighthouse (English)Faro Recalada (Spanish)
*{{cite rowlett, arg Populated places in Buenos Aires Province Populated coastal places in Argentina Seaside resorts in Argentina Populated places established in 1975