Villa Urquiza is a

barrio ''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city, usually delimited by functional (e.g. residenti ...

or neighborhood 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 ...

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 between the barrios of Villa Pueyrredón, Belgrano,

Villa Ortúzar Villa Ortúzar is one of the neighbourhoods 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 loca ...

, Coghlan, Saavedra and

Agronomía Agronomía is a ''Barrios of Buenos Aires, barrio'' or district in the centre part of City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It gets its name from the University of Buenos Aires Faculty of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires, Faculty of Agronomy (''Fa ...

. Its limits are the streets and avenues Constituyentes, Crisólogo Larralde, Galván, Núñez, Tronador, Roosevelt, Rómulo S. Naón and La Pampa. It is a residential neighborhood with both old houses and apartment buildings, quiet streets and a few crowded, high-traffic avenues. It has several parks that make it very pleasant. During the summer, it is not uncommon to see neighbors comfortably sitting on chairs on the sidewalk, chatting with each other. It is also home of several institutions of importance to the Buenos Aires culture, such as the

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...

and milonga ballrooms Sunderland and Club Sin Rumbo,

Argentine rock Argentine rock (known locally as ''rock nacional'' , "national rock" in the sense of "local", "not international") is rock music composed or performed by Argentine bands or artists mostly in Spanish. Argentine rock began by recycling hits of Eng ...

pioneer

Litto Nebbia Félix Francisco "Litto" Nebbia Corbacho (born 21 July 1948) is an Argentine singer-songwriter, musician and producer prominent in the development of Argentine rock. Life and work Félix Francisco Nebbia Corbacho was born in Rosario, Santa Fe t ...

's Melopea Records, and the winner of three in a row

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hardcourt, hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and Indoor soccer, indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players ...

metropolitan tournaments, Club Pinocho.

History

The founder of Villa Urquiza was

Francisco Seeber Francisco Seeber (November 15, 1841 – December 13, 1913) was an Argentine military officer, businessman and Mayor of Buenos Aires. Life and times Francisco Seeber was born in Buenos Aires to Sophia Taut and Magnus Seeber, both German Argent ...

, who was a soldier in the

War of the Triple Alliance The Paraguayan War, also known as the War of the Triple Alliance, was a South American war that lasted from 1864 to 1870. It was fought between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance of Argentina, the Empire of Brazil, and Uruguay. It was the deadlies ...

against

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

. Seeber was also Mayor of

between 1889 and 1890, merchant and president of the

Buenos Aires Western Railway The Buenos Aires Western Railway (BAWR) (in Spanish: Ferrocarril Oeste de Buenos Aires), inaugurated in the city of Buenos Aires on 29 August 1857, was the first railway built in Argentina and the start of the extensive rail network which was ...

. In its beginnings, the barrio was composed of three small neighborhoods called Villa Catalinas, Villa Mazzini and Villa Modelo. Tronador Street, Buenos Aires

The neighborhoods were situated on top of highlands, almost 40 meters (130 feet) above sea level. At the time, Francisco Seeber owned a company downtown called "Muelle de las Catalinas" (Catalinas Wharfs), located at the time on very low ground. He bought land in the former area with the intent of hauling soil to Catalinas for

land reclamation Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...

. The workers that had worked on the project were mostly from the Province of Entre Ríos, and in 1901, they successfully petitioned for the neighborhood to be named after their provincial hero,

Justo José de Urquiza Justo José de Urquiza y García (; October 18, 1801 – April 11, 1870) was an Argentine general and politician who served as president of the Argentine Confederation from 1854 to 1860. Life Justo José de Urquiza y García was b ...

. Villa Urquiza has been served by the Mitre Railway Line since 1902. Work began on a

Buenos Aires Metro The Buenos Aires Underground ( es, Subterráneo de Buenos Aires, links=no), locally known as Subte (), is a rapid transit system that serves the area of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The first section of this network (Plaza de Mayo–Pla ...

Line B extension into Villa Urquiza in 2010, helping increase the neighborhood's appeal as a

bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

for downtown-bound commuters. The extension was finished in 2013 and now serves as the last stop of the B line. Day of the neighborhood: October 2

References

* * * {{coord, 34, 34, 24, S, 58, 29, 49, W, display=title Neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires