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 delimited by functional (e.g. residential, comm ...
'' (neighbourhood or district) of
Montevideo
Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
,
Uruguay
Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of 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 the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...
and part of the Capurro / Bella Vista composite barrio, with Artigas Boulevard separating the two.
Location
Bella Vista shares borders with Capurro to the north west,
Prado
The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century, based on ...
Ciudad Vieja
Ciudad Vieja () is a town and municipality in the Guatemalan Departments of Guatemala, department of Sacatepéquez. According to the 2018 census, the town has a population of 32,802Bay of Montevideo to the south west.
The south part of Bella Vista has also been known as Arroyo Seco (dry stream) from as early as 1756. The name is still used today, though there are no precise limits that describe this area.
History
Though there had been a few villas in this area before the 1840s, among which the residence of Joaquín Suárez, it was Francisco Farías who started auctioning building lots of the area in 1842. At the time, Bella Vista was famous for offering a most scenic view of the bay and the city, hence its name. In 1869 the first train station was inaugurated in the area, but in 1873 the Estación Central General Artigas in Aguada took its place.
Main streets and squares
The main streets of Bella Vista are Agraciada Avenue, Joaquín Suárez Avenue and Rambla Balthasar Brum, which runs along the coastline. Its two main squares are Plaza San Martín, dedicated to the Argentine independence hero, and Plaza Joaquín Suárez, dedicated to the politician and twice President of the Republic, whose statue, on the south edge of the square, marks the beginning of the homonymous avenue.
Buildings and locations
On Tapes street is located the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St. Alphonsus (Parroquia Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Soccorro y San Alfonso), notable among other for its architecture and on Agraciada Avenue the Armenian Apostólic church. Along the Rambla most notably are the central installations of the electric power company of Montevideo, the "UTE - Central José Batlle y Ordóñez", and behind it is the Palacio de la Luz, housing the administrative offices of the UTE. Three blocks southwest of Plaza San Martin is the Museo Geominero del Uruguay, which belongs to the National Direction of Mining and Geology.
The west part of this barrio, which runs parallel to the Rambla, is an industrial area, with many old industrial buildings which serve now as warehouses. Among other functioning industries is the beer factory Fábricas Nacionales de Cerveza.
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
Salesians of Don Bosco
The Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), formally known as the Society of Saint Francis de Sales (), is a religious congregation of men in the Catholic Church, founded in 1859 by the Italian priest John Bosco to help poor and migrant youth during the ...