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

plaza A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...

(urban square) in Rosario,

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

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 ...

. Its name is an homage to General

José de San Martín José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras (25 February 177817 August 1850), known simply as José de San Martín () or '' the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru'', was an Argentine general and the primary leader of the southern and centr ...

, hero of the Argentine War of Independence. 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. In the center of the plaza there is a bronze 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 (; pcd, Boulonne-su-Mér; nl, Bonen; la, Gesoriacum or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the C ...

(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 The National University of Rosario ( es, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, UNR) is a research public university located in the city of Rosario, province of Santa Fe, Argentina. Overview Rosario National University (UNR) was created in 1968 by ...

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 Marcos Paz (1813 – January 2, 1868) was Governor of Córdoba and Tucumán Provinces, an Argentine Senator, and Vice President of Argentina from October 12, 1862, until his death in 1868. Biography Marcos Paz was born to a prominent Tu ...

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