Colón is a city in the . It is located in the east of the province, on the western shore of the

Uruguay River The Uruguay River ( es, Río Uruguay, ; pt, Rio Uruguai, ) is a major river in South America. It flows from north to south and forms parts of the boundaries of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of La M ...

, and has about 23,000 inhabitants (). It lies opposite

Paysandú Paysandú () is the capital of Paysandú Department in western Uruguay. Location The city is located on the banks of the Uruguay River, which forms the Argentina–Uruguay border, border with Argentina. It lies northwest of Montevideo via Rout ...

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

, to which it is linked across the river by the

General Artigas Bridge The General Artigas Bridge () is an international road bridge that crosses the Uruguay River and joins Argentina and Uruguay. It runs between Colón, Entre Ríos Province, Argentina, and Paysandú, Paysandú Department, Uruguay. It is a cantile ...

. The city was founded in 1863 by General

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 bo ...

, former ''

caudillo A ''caudillo'' ( , ; osp, cabdillo, from Latin , diminutive of ''caput'' "head") is a type of personalist leader wielding military and political power. There is no precise definition of ''caudillo'', which is often used interchangeably with " ...

'' of Entre Ríos and then the first

constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these prin ...

President of Argentina.

Overview

Colón is the center of an important

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

region. Though it is a relatively small city, it features high-quality

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

s, a

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

, and camping sites. It also has

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by c ...

s and associated facilities. The neighboring towns allow for small-scale historical sightseeing, since they were mostly created as agricultural colonies by

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

(especially from

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

). In the Colón area (about 60 km from the city) lies the

El Palmar National Park El Palmar National Park (in Spanish, ''Parque Nacional El Palmar'') is one of Argentina's national parks, located on the center-east of the province of Entre Ríos, midway between the cities of Colón (54 km) and Concordia (60 km). I ...

, a large reserve of Yatay

palm tree The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm ...

s ('' Syagrus yatay''), informally known as ''Palmar de Colón''. The ''

Palacio San José Palacio (''palace'') is a Spanish habitational name. It may have originated from many places in Spain, especially in Galicia and Asturies. Notable people with the surname include: * Agustina Palacio de Libarona (1825-1880), Argentine writer, st ...

'', former country residence of General Urquiza and now a national monument, is also near Colón, closer to the city of

Concepción del Uruguay Concepción del Uruguay is a city in Argentina. It is located in the Entre Ríos province, on the western shore of the Uruguay River, some 320 kilometers north from Buenos Aires. Its population is about 80,000 inhabitants (). History The city ...

History

The city was founded by General

on 12 April 1863.Historia de Colón
on Turismo Entre Ríos As the city was bordered by the

it became a commercial center, trading products that came from neighbor cities of Colonia San José, also founded by Urquiza himself along with Swiss and French immigrants that had arrived in 1857 and were engaged in agriculture and livestock. As the number of inhabitants increased, Urquiza thought it convenient to establish a new town near the region. Therefore on 26 August 1871 the creation of "Villa de Colón" was officially promulgated. It was bordered by Arroyo de la Leche, Arroyo del Medio, and Colonia San José. The "San Justo and Pastor" Church was established in 1876. After the reform of the Constitution in 1933, Colón became a first-class municipality.

Tourism

Colón is regarded as the "Provincial Capital of Tourism", due to the large affluence of tourists in the city. It has about 14 km of beach on the Uruguay River that form one of the largest beaches in the province. The "Parque Quirós" is an elevated

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

with a large variety of fields to practice several sports such as

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

, among others.Parque Quirós
information It was built by national deputy (and then governor of Entre Ríos) Herminio Quirós as a sports center for the schools of the city.

Gallery

Costanera de Colon, Entre Rios.JPG, Avenida Costanera Biblioteca de la ciudad de Colón, Entre Ríos.jpg, Library Puerto viejo, Colón - 2.jpg, Sailboats at the port Camping Piedras Coloradas inundado.jpg, Camping Hostería en Colón - 1.jpg, Lodge Parroquia santos justoypastor frente.jpg, Santos Justo y Pastor Church

References

External links

* (Municipality)
Colón Turismo

Colón
on Turismo Entre Ríos

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colon, Entre Rios Populated places in Entre Ríos Province Uruguay River Port settlements in Argentina Populated places established in 1863