Plaza San Martín (Spanish, San Martín Square) is a

plaza A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Rela ...

(urban square) in

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city, located northwest of Buenos Aires on the west bank of the Paraná River, is the third-most populous city in the ...

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Santa Fe,

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. Its name is an homage to General

José de San Martín José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras (; 25 February 177817 August 1850), nicknamed "the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru", was an Argentine general and the primary leader of the southern and central parts of South America's succe ...

, hero of the

Argentine War of Independence The Argentine War of Independence () was a secessionist civil war (until 1816) fought from 1810 to 1818 by Argentine patriotic forces under Manuel Belgrano, Juan José Castelli, Martín Miguel de Güemes, Martin Miguel de Guemes and José de ...

. Plaza San Martín is located in the downtown area of Rosario, occupying the block defined by Santa Fe St., Dorrego St., Córdoba St. and Moreno St., along the historical segment of Córdoba St. called

Paseo del Siglo ''Paseo del Siglo'' (literally Tour of the Century or Walk of the Century) is a part of the historical center of the city of Rosario, Argentina. It comprises eight blocks in the downtown Córdoba Street (Rosario), Córdoba Street, from Oroño Bou ...

. In the center of the plaza there is a

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

statue of General José de San Martín, mounted on a horse and carrying a flag. The statue is a copy of a monument erected in the French city of

Boulogne-sur-Mer Boulogne-sur-Mer (; ; ; or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Hauts-de-France, Northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Pas-de-Calais. Boul ...

(the place of San Martín's voluntary exile and death), and was inaugurated on 21 May 1913. The plaza is flanked by important buildings, among them the former Tribunals Palace, now seat of the Faculty of Law of the National University of Rosario and of the Dr. Ángel Gallardo Provincial Natural Sciences Museum, and the former headquarters of the Santa Fe Provincial Police, now a delegation of the provincial government and host to a small museum of the last dictatorship ( Centro Popular de la Memoria).

History

The land where the plaza is located was donated by Marcos Paz in 1857, and was much larger than at present (extending several blocks to the south). Its purpose was to serve as a marketplace, where cargo wagons that came and went between Rosario and other cities farther away from the littoral would stop to load and unload. When the railway system was established, in 1871, the municipal government projected to build a square, which was referred to as Plaza San Martín already in 1884, while it was still an empty lot. In 1888, the municipality gave up most of the land for the construction of the Tribunals, leaving the terrain with its current dimensions. In 1891 mayor Gabriel Carrasco had gardening works begin on the site.

External links

EnArgentinaTurismo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Plaza San Martin (Rosario) San Martin