Villa Mercedes is a city in the
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 out ...
of
San Luis, Argentina. It lies on the center-east of the province, on the left-hand banks of the
Quinto River, 32 km from the border with
Córdoba, on
National Route 148, and near the intersection of National Routes
8 and
7. National Route 7 links the city to the provincial capital
San Luis, 90 km to the north-west. It had 96,781 inhabitants during the .
The city was founded by Governor
Justo Daract on or around December 1, 1856, as ''Fortín Constitucional'', a mixed civilian-military
fort, to protect the territory against
attacks by the
Ranquel aboriginal tribes. The original name was changed in 1861 to Villa Mercedes by decision of the residents, who had adopted the Virgin of Mercy (''Virgen de las Mercedes'') as their patron.
Villa Mercedes grew quickly after a railway line from
Villa María on the
Central Argentine line between
Rosario
Rosario () is the largest city in the central Argentine province of Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous city in the country, and is also the most p ...
and
Córdoba, reached the town in 1875. Built by the State-owned company
Ferrocarril Andino
The Andean Railway (native name: Ferrocarril Andino) was a state-owned railway company in Argentina which, towards the end of the 19th century, built and operated a line connecting Villa María in Córdoba Province with the cities of Mendoza, ...
, the line was extended to
San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to:
Places Argentina
* San Juan Province, Argentina
* San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province
* San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province
* San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...
in 1885 via
San Luis and
Mendoza. The line from Villa Mercedes to Mendoza would become the middle section of the route 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 ...
and was bought by the
Argentine Great Western Railway
The Argentine Great Western Railway (AGWR) (in Spanish: Ferrocarril Gran Oeste Argentino) was a British-owned railway company, founded in 1887, that operated a broad gauge, , railway network in the Argentine provinces of San Luis, San Juan and ...
in 1887 and later became part of the
Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway
The Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway (BA&P) (in Spanish: Ferrocarril Buenos Aires al Pacífico) was one of the ''Big Four'' broad gauge, , British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina.
The original concession wa ...
network.
Villa Mercedes was officially declared a city in 1896. It is now the second largest in San Luis, and an industrial and educational center, hosting a branch of the
National University of San Luis.
It is served by
Villa Reynolds Airport.
Climate
Villa Mercedes has a dry winter
humid subtropical climate (
Köppen ''Cwa''), typical from the geographic center of Argentina. Summer is warm to hot with frequent thunderstorms, whereas winter is dry and prone to heavy frosts. Snowfall is unusual but still more common than in Eastern Argentina, and occasionally it can stay on ground during a couple of days, as it happened during the
July 2007 Argentine winter storm
The July 2007 Argentine winter storm resulted from the interaction of an area of low pressure systems across central Argentina and the entry of a massive polar cold snap during the 6–8 July 2007; it was the worst winter of Argentina in almost ...
, when temperature hit -16.8 °C,
the lowest on record for the city.
References
H.R.Stones, ''British Railways in Argentina 1860-1948'', P.E.Waters & Associates, Bromley, Kent, England, 1993.
*
*
Municipality of Villa Mercedes(official website).
{{Authority control
Populated places in San Luis Province
Populated places established in 1856
Cities in Argentina