Pinamar is an
Argentine
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...
coastal resort city located on the coast of 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 ...
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 ...
. It has about 45,000 inhabitants (2020).
Located less than south of
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
, it is one of several small seaside communities that line the coast. Since Pinamar's main attraction is the ocean, it is a fairly quiet town during the winter months. Tourism fuels the economy during the summer. Several other coastal towns are right beside Pinamar. If you move south, you will have the towns of Ostende, Valeria del Mar, and finally Cariló.
Two facts set Pinamar apart from most of the other Argentine beach cities: it is a planned city with a very strict building code, and it has been artificially turned from wild sand dunes into a forest (mostly of pine trees, which explains the "pina" in the town's name).
City planning, as defined by founding architect orge Bunge] and maintained by elected authorities ever since, translates into a city mostly made up of residential houses with open gardens.
Pine planting was originally started in
Cariló
Cariló (from the Mapuche word meaning "Green Dune") is an upscale beach resort town in Argentina. It is situated in a man made forest on the Atlantic coast of the Province of Buenos Aires, approximately 360 km south of Buenos Aires city i ...
—a town nearby
Villa Gesell
Villa Gesell is a seaside resort city in Villa Gesell Partido, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It was founded in 1931, with the intention of turning a dune field into a timber plantation. and copied in Pinamar, although the city plan for
Villa Gesell
Villa Gesell is a seaside resort city in Villa Gesell Partido, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It was founded in 1931, with the intention of turning a dune field into a timber plantation. was not as carefully laid out or kept through the years.
History
![Jorge bunge](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Jorge_bunge.jpg)
In the XIX century, the region where the
Pinamar Partido
Pinamar Partido is a partido on the Atlantic coast of Buenos Aires Province in Argentina. It limits with La Costa Partido to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the route 11/Interbalnearia to the west, and Villa Gesell Partido to the s ...
stays nowadays was a desertic area plenty of
dune
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...
s facing the sea. Those dunes constituted the fields called "Los Montes Grandes de Juancho", which belonged to Don Martín de Alzaga, an older man and landowner, who had married Felicitas Guerrero in 1862, a young woman of only 16 years old.
[Historia]
on Pinamar website
In 1907, the
Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway
The Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway (BAGS) ( es, Ferrocarril del Sud) was one of the ''Big Four'' Indian gauge, broad gauge, , British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina. The company was founded by Edward ...
opened the Juancho station built on lands previously owned by José Guerrero. That station was terminus of a branch from General Guido in the
Constitución–
Mar del Plata
Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" is a s ...
line. The touristic activity would then increase when visitors came to Pinamar via Juancho station (onboarded by horse-drawn carriages which took them to the respective towns).
[
In the last years of the 30's, architect Jorge Bunge, a visionary man, associated with Valeria Guerrero, owner of the land and Felicitas's niece, both formed a partnership and Bunge created an urban design as particular as innovative, tracing the streets in the form of arabesques and curves to respect the dunes and undulations of the landscape. These lands were ]dune
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...
s that formed a barrier to the sea. Bunge, who had studied not only architecture and engineering but also urban planning in Nicaragua, towards the end of the 1930s thought of fixing the dunes, property of Valeria Guerrero, reforesting and urbanizing them. He studied the characteristics and possibilities of the area, taking into account that a railway branch already existed. He shaped his project with a company called "Pinamar S.A.", together with Guerrero and Franco Moschella. They were joined by a group of people, including men from the countryside, industrialists and professionals motivated by the desire to overcome a real challenge.[
In 1940, studies and preliminary tests began, as well as the essential basic constructions to provide infrastructure for the project. One year later, the fixation and afforestation of the dunes began on a large scale with unprecedented methods for Argentina. By 1942 urbanization began; The road network was extended, houses were built for the company's hierarchical personnel and specific studies on the natural resources and climatic characteristics of the place were completed, essential data for the realization of the Master Plan that would project the integral conformation of the landscape required.][
]
On February 14, 1943, Pinamar was inaugurated as a spa and opened to the public.[Pinamar, en armonía con los médanos]
on Welcome Argentina The "Playas Hotel", the Electric Plant and a small Shopping Center were built and inaugurated. The plantations continued to continue fixing their dunes. Fractions of land were donated for the construction of the School, the First Aid Room, the Civic Center, the Police Detachment, the Weather Station and the Church. A factory for roof tiles, tiles and other elements for construction was built. The provincial road (route 11) was completed.
In 1944, the Master Plan was presented to the Province of Buenos Aires, which was approved. The differential road network was extended with the paving of the main streets of Pinamar. Electrical networks and running water were laid, and simultaneously the first areas were definitively urbanized. In 1945, the first lots were sold and construction began on a core of permanent homes and summer homes. In that same year, the first golf course, the School, the first aid room, the Church of Our Lady of Peace, the Water and Light Cooperative, the public telephone, the post office and the original pier were inaugurated.
When the entire railway network in Argentina was nationalised in Argentina in 1948, The Pinamar station was placed where today stays a park, on Av. Constitución e/ Apolo y Av. Intemedanos.
The first services were run by Ganz
The Ganz Works or Ganz ( or , ''Ganz companies'', formerly ''Ganz and Partner Iron Mill and Machine Factory'') was a group of companies operating between 1845 and 1949 in Budapest, Hungary. It was named after Ábrahám Ganz, the founder and th ...
railcar
A railcar (not to be confused with a railway car) is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach (carriage, car), with a drive ...
s that had been also used by the Argentine State Railway
Argentine State Railway (in Spanish: Ferrocarriles del Estado) was a State-owned railway company of Argentina, established by Law N° 6.757 in October 1909, when José Figueroa Alcorta was the President of Argentina. The company built and oper ...
to run services to Bariloche
San Carlos de Bariloche, usually known as Bariloche (), is a city in the province of Río Negro Province, Río Negro, Argentina, situated in the foothills of the Andes on the southern shores of Nahuel Huapi Lake. It is located within the Nahuel ...
. However, subsecquent services to Pinamar would be run by Drewry vehicles. The Constitución – Pinamar service was run for 18 years until December 12, 1967, when the service was definitely closed. Tracks were lifted in the 1970s.[
Bunge died in 1961. One year later, the Telephone Cooperativa was established. On July 1, 1978, the "]Pinamar Partido
Pinamar Partido is a partido on the Atlantic coast of Buenos Aires Province in Argentina. It limits with La Costa Partido to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the route 11/Interbalnearia to the west, and Villa Gesell Partido to the s ...
was established through Provincial Law 9,024. The Partido (now independent of General Madariaga Partido) integrated the cities of Pinamar, Ostende, Valeria del Mar, and Cariló, among other small towns.[
In 1991 the Governor of ]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 ...
, Eduardo Duhalde
Eduardo Alberto Duhalde (; born 5 October 1941) is an Argentine Peronist politician who served as the interim President of Argentina from January 2002 to May 2003. He also served as Vice President and Governor of Buenos Aires in the 1990s.
Bor ...
, expressed his intention to reactivate the Gral. Guido – Gral. Madariaga service (those tracks had not been removed) also stating that the government was studying to extend the line to Pinamar. Services to General Madariaga were reactivated in May 1994, being operated by state-owned Ferrobaires
The Unidad Ejecutora del Plan Ferroviario Provincial (UEPFP) (in English: "Executive Unit of the Provincial Railway Plan"), mostly known under its trade name Ferrobaires, was a public railway company which operated extensive long-distance passen ...
,[ a company established by the province to operated passenger trains in the territory][Decreto n° 99/93]
CRÉASE LA UNIDAD EJECUTORA DEL PROGRAMA FERROVIARIO PROVINCIAL on Government of Buenos Aires website["Ferrobaires: La idea que no fue" on Portal de Trenes website]
/ref> after Carlos Menem
Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. Ideologically, he identified as a Peronist and supported economically liberal policies. H ...
's administration closed all the services in March 1993.[El servicio ferroviario argentino de las últimas dos décadas, el antes y después de las privatizaciones]
- Monografias.com[Privatización de los ferrocarriles: “Ramal que para, ramal que cierra”]
- Contra Molinos de Sortilegios, 24 July 2013[COMO PERDIMOS EL FERROCARRIL ARGENTINO]
- Ancaloo, 29 September 2008
Between 1994 and 1996 new tracks were added from Gral. Madariaga and a new station named " Divisadero de Pinamar". The new station was built 1,5 km from the Route 11 (west direction) and more distant than the original Pinamar station closed in 1967 to avoid a level crossing
A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...
on a highly trafficked route. Divisadero de Pinamar was inaugurated on December 7, 1996.[
]
Climate
Transport
Pinamar was one of the few cities of the Argentine Atlantic Coast to have a railway service when the Pinamar station was opened in 1949. It operated for 18 years until on December 12, 1967, the service was definitely closed.[
Nowadays, visitors can arrive by train from Constitución station to Divisadero de Pinamar station (opened in 1996 and operated by state-owned ]Trenes Argentinos
Operadora Ferroviaria Sociedad del Estado (abbreviated SOFSE; trading name: Trenes Argentinos Operaciones) is an Argentine state-owned company created in 2008 to operate passenger services in Argentina. It is a subsidiary of the Ferrocarriles Ar ...
) and making an onward connection by bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
to the city, distant about 2 km from the station.
The bus terminal is located on Avenida Ingeniero Budge and Del Bosque.
Interesting facts
On July 2, 2019 the world's first webcam observation of the total solar eclipse below the horizon took place from this city,[ which was at the extension of the Solar eclipse of July 2, 2019">2019 total solar eclipse.
]
Gallery
File:pina1.jpg, Nautilus Street
File:Pinamar053.jpg, View of the beach from the pier
File:Drewry_en_estacion_pinamar.jpg, Former train station (1949)
File:Rambla_de_madera_en_Pinamar.jpg, Wooden boardwalk
File:ParroquiaNuestraSeñoradelaPaz-Pinamar.jpg, Parroquia Ntra. Sra. de la Paz
File:Buenos Aires - Costa - Pinamar1.jpg, Aerial view
Sister cities
* Myrtle Beach, United States
* Ostend, Oostende, Belgium
See also
* Pinamar Partido
Pinamar Partido is a partido on the Atlantic coast of Buenos Aires Province in Argentina. It limits with La Costa Partido to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the route 11/Interbalnearia to the west, and Villa Gesell Partido to the s ...
* Pinamar railway station (1949)
Pinamar was a railway station in the homonymous city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Operated by recently created Ferrocarriles Argentinos, the station was opened in 1949 as an extension of the General Guido – General Madariaga branch of ...
* Divisadero de Pinamar railway station
* List of twin towns and sister cities in Argentina
This is a list of municipalities in Argentina which have standing links to local communities in other countries known as "town twinning" (usually in Europe) or "sister cities" (usually in the rest of the world).
A
Aldea Valle María
* Meinha ...
References
External links
*
Pinamar Turismo
Respirá Pinamar
*
{{Authority control
Populated places in Buenos Aires Province
Populated coastal places in Argentina
Seaside resorts in Argentina
Populated places established in 1943