Villa Epecuén was a tourist village in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, on the eastern shore of Laguna Epecuén, about north of the city of

Carhué Carhué is an Argentine town in the Province of Buenos Aires, head of the Municipality (Partido) of Adolfo Alsina. Carhué is to the west of the city of La Plata and from Buenos Aires. The city is a tourist destination famous for the thermal ...

. Developed in the early 1920s, Epecuén was accessible from

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 ...

by train. The

Sarmiento Railway The Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Railway (FCDFS) (Spanish: Ferrocarril Domingo Faustino Sarmiento), named after the former Argentine president, statesman, educator, and author Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, is one of the six state-owned Argentine rai ...

line served Villa Epecuén station, while the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

and the

Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway The Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway (BAGS) ( es, Ferrocarril del Sud) was one of the ''Big Four'' broad gauge, , British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina. The company was founded by Edward Lumb in 1862 ...

carried passengers to nearby Carhué station. Tourism was developed by an Englishman after taking the land on lease. He marketed the lake as having healing properties, hiring Italian scientists to bolster the claim. At its height, Villa Epecuén could accommodate at least 5,000 visitors. On 6 November 1985, a

seiche A seiche ( ) is a standing wave in an enclosed or partially enclosed body of water. Seiches and seiche-related phenomena have been observed on lakes, reservoirs, swimming pools, bays, harbors, caves and seas. The key requirement for formation of ...

, caused by a rare weather pattern, broke a nearby dam, and then the dike protecting the village; the water rose progressively, reaching a peak of . The village became uninhabitable and was never rebuilt. Many of the ruins are covered by a layer of white and grey

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

. At the time, there were up to 280 businesses in Epecuén, including lodges, guesthouses, hotels, and businesses that 25,000 tourists visited between November and March, from the 1950s to the 1970s. The town reached a population of 1,500 inhabitants at its peak. As of 2011 it had one resident, Pablo Novak, born in 1930, who returned to his home in 2009 when the waters receded after covering the town for 25 years. ''Pablo's Villa'', a 2013 documentary, chronicles the life of the town and of Novak. The town has been featured in the TV shows ''Abandoned Engineering'' (season 4, episode 1), and ''Mysteries of the Abandoned'' (season 4, episode 1). It was used as a location in the 2010 film '' And Soon the Darkness'', starring

Amber Heard Amber Laura Heard (born April 22, 1986) is an American actress. She had her first leading role in the horror film ''All the Boys Love Mandy Lane'' (2006), and went on to star in films such as '' The Ward'' (2010) and '' Drive Angry'' (2011). S ...

and Karl Urban. The city features as the backdrop to one of

Danny MacAskill Daniel "Danny" MacAskill is a Scottish trials cyclist, from Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye. He works professionally as a street trials / mountain bike rider for Santa Cruz Bicycles. In April 2009, he released a five-minute street trials video t ...

's street trials cycling videos.Archived a
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and th
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References

External links

The Town That Spent 25 Years Underwater
Messy Nessy Chic
Argentina's underwater town that was submerged for 30 years
BBC News {{DEFAULTSORT:Villa Epecuen Buildings and structures in Buenos Aires Province Submerged places Modern ruins Ghost towns in South America Environmental disaster ghost towns Adolfo Alsina Partido Defunct resorts Floods in Argentina Dam failures in South America 1985 disasters in Argentina 1985 floods in South America