Plaza Santiago Montenegro is a small
hardscape
Hardscape refers to hard landscape materials in the built environment structures that are incorporated into a landscape. This can include paved areas, driveways, retaining walls, sleeper walls, stairs, walkways, and any other landscaping mad ...
plaza
A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...
in the city of
Rosario,
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of
Santa Fe,
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 ...
. Its name honors one of the first Spanish-descended settlers in the area, Captain Santiago Montenegro. It was known as Plaza Pinasco until 1993.
The plaza occupies part of a block in the downtown area, limited by San Luis St., a pedestrian segment of
San Martín St., and a smaller street or passage called Barón de Mauá. Most of the block is taken up by the
Bernardino Rivadavia Culture Center.
History
The site of the plaza was a marketplace between 1857 and 1903. A better organized fruit and vegetable market replaced it around 1905, which lasted there until 1962, when mayor
Cándido Carballo ordered its removal for sanitary reasons, in 1962. The buildings were demolished, leaving an empty lot. The
Automóvil Club Argentino
The Argentine Automobile Club ( es, Automóvil Club Argentino, ACA) is Argentina's largest automobile association.
It was founded on June 11, 1904, by Dalmiro Varela Castex, who in 1892 had imported the country's first registered automobile, a D ...
struck an agreement with the Municipality to build a car park underground, while the ground area was turned into a hardscape public space called Plaza Emidgio Pinasco.
When Argentina hosted the
1978 FIFA World Cup, Rosario was chosen as a sub-seat, and the state organization in charge of FIFA's requirements appropriated a sector of the plaza to build a press center. The building was first planned as a provisional one, but then the organization decided to make it permanent, and donate it to the Municipality to function as a culture center.
[Municipality of Rosario]
''Centro Cultural Bernardino Rivadavia''
The plaza was rebuilt in 1993, during the administration of mayor
Héctor Cavallero
Héctor Cavallero (2 October 1939 – 2 October 2020), nicknamed ''El Tigre'' ("The Tiger"), was an Argentine politician, who was mayor of Rosario, Santa Fe, and a member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies for the Province of Santa Fe.
Biogra ...
. Since then, it was often occupied by a sort of
flea market, with artisans selling small merchandise and makeshift kiosks offering used textbooks. In 2005, reacting to complaints about the state of the plaza, and following a consistent policy of ordering the physical distribution of street fairs in the city, the municipal government surveyed the sellers and selected a number of them to work with permits in the plaza.
[La Capital, 17 December 2005]
''La feria de plaza Montenegro reabre hoy con nuevo estilo''
References
{{coord, 32.949479, S, 60.637777, W, display=title
Plazas in Rosario, Santa Fe