Villa Hortensia is a

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

in the city of

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

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

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 ...

. It is located on 1917 Warnes St. in

Barrio Alberdi Alberdi is a primarily residential barrio (traditional neighborhood) of Rosario, Argentina. It is located in the north-east of the city, between Rondeau Boulevard and the Paraná River. In the current administrative division system employed by the ...

, in the north-eastern part of Rosario. It was built in 1890 by architect Boyd Walker for José Nicolás Puccio, founder of Alberdi. It was then sold to Ciro Echesortu, and then in turn to Alfredo Rouillon, married to María Hortensia Echesortu (from whom the house got its name). The wealthy Rouillon family employed Villa Hortensia as a summer residence, taking advantage of its proximity to the

Paraná River The Paraná River ( es, Río Paraná, links=no , pt, Rio Paraná, gn, Ysyry Parana) is a river in south-central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina for some ."Parana River". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Br ...

and its large, tree-shadowed gardens. Maintenance of the mansion was neglected until, in 1989, it was declared a National Historic Monument. At the time it was under a serious threat of being condemned. The Villa was acquired by the Municipality of Rosario on 30 May 1996 in order to transform it into an administrative center, as part of an official

decentralisation Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group. Conce ...

plan. Villa Hortensia was restored, emphasizing the original plans and materials, and was re-opened as the first Municipal District Center on 13 October 1997. Villa Hortensia hosts a citizen assistance office, a delegation of the

Municipal Bank of Rosario The Municipal Bank of Rosario (Spanish: ''Banco Municipal de Rosario'', BMR) is a bank in Rosario, province of Santa Fe, Argentina. Its central offices are located in the downtown area, on San Martín St., and there are several additional offic ...

, and offices of the water, natural gas and power companies, where the neighbors of the North District can pay for these services, place requests, etc. The mansion also has a

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

office. This allows for citizens to carry out administrative business near their homes, instead of travelling downtown to the main municipal offices (a 40-minute bus ride). A survey conducted a month after the inauguration of Villa Hortensia found that the citizens of the North District used to travel an average of 8 km for administrative business before, a distance which has been reduced to only 1.5 km. Eighty percent of the citizens surveyed also consider the service in Villa Hortensia better than the one formerly provided in the downtown offices.

Sources

*
Municipality of Rosario
- Information on the North District Municipal Center. *

- Directions and a location map for Villa Hortensia. *
''Villa Hortensia, un palacio del siglo XIX''
Tourism Office of Rosario. *

''Descentralización y transformación estructural en Rosario (Argentina).'' 5 July 2000.

Sources

See also