San Nicolás is one of the neighbourhoods of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, sharing most of the city and national government Neighborhood of Buenos Aires with neighboring

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and home to much of the financial sector. It is referred usually as ''El Centro'' ("The Centre"), and the part east of the 9 de Julio Avenue is known as '' Microcentro''. The limits of the neighbourhood are the Córdoba, Callao, Rivadavia, La Rábida Norte and Eduardo Madero Avenues. The district is home to 33,305 inhabitants.

History

The area was named for the ''San Nicolás'' Parish, consecrated in 1773. Demolished when work on Ninth of July Avenue started, the Obelisk of Buenos Aires now stands in its place. The future Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires was also built in the San Nicolás area between 1770 and 1822. Prospering following the establishment of the

Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata or Viceroyalty of Buenos Aires ( or Virreinato de Buenos Aires or ) meaning "River of the Silver", also called the "Viceroyalty of River Plate" in some scholarly writings, in southern South America, was ...

, Buenos Aires merchants had Boneo's Pier built in 1802, quickly becoming the city's main shipping terminal. The

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

opened a

consulate A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth countries, a ...

here in 1794, leading to the development of a sizable British community in the area, which became known as the "English borough." They founded the English Merchants' Society in 1810 and the British Consulate became home to the first modern bank in Buenos Aires, in 1822. Calle Florida 1888

Enjoying close commercial ties to the British Empire, in 1830 Governor

Juan Manuel de Rosas Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rozas y López de Osornio (30 March 1793 – 14 March 1877), nicknamed "Restorer of the Laws", was an Argentine politician and army officer who ruled Buenos Aires Province and briefly the Argentine Confedera ...

donated land in the area for the benefit of the new St. John the Baptist Anglican Church, the oldest in existence in Buenos Aires. A growing community from the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

established the first

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

church nearby in 1836. The growing importance of the area as a financial center was highlighted by the 1854 establishment of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange. San Nicolás remains the financial center of Argentina, something underscored by the presence of the Argentine Central Bank and the National Bank, Argentina's largest. This area also saw the opening of the first

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

in Latin America, which went in service in 1857, facing what today is the Colón Theatre. Several well-known members of the English community lived in the neighborhood of San Nicolás, including the Gowland's, belonging to a

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

family. In 1862 the British established the Bank of London and Río de la Plata, located in the corners of the streets Piedad and Reconquista. The rapid development of the Argentine economy after 1875 made itself evident in San Nicolás in the reclaiming of riverfront land, where the shore popular with washerwomen became the ''Paseo de Julio'' (today Leandro Alem Avenue) and lots such as the central artillery field became city parks. The area's network of horse-drawn trolleys gave way in 1913 to the first metro stations in the Southern Hemisphere and renowned institutions such as the Colón and Cervantes Theatres were followed in the 1920s and 1930s by the addition of

Diagonal Norte In geometry, a diagonal is a line segment joining two vertex (geometry), vertices of a polygon or polyhedron, when those vertices are not on the same edge (geometry), edge. Informally, any sloping line is called diagonal. The word ''diagonal'' ...

Avenue, landmarks such as the Buenos Aires Central Post Office, and one of the greatest concentrations of popular theatres and cinemas in the world. San Nicolás acquired its approximate, present layout when, in 1936, five city blocks were demolished (including numerous historical landmarks, such as the ''Mercado del Plata'' and the San Nicolás Parish) for the first stage of the Ninth of July Avenue.

Economy

Incorporating most of the Buenos Aires Central Business District, San Nicolás is home to the headquarters of numerous leading Argentine firms, including Aerolíneas Argentinas,Terms and Conditions
" Aerolíneas Argentinas. Retrieved on January 28, 2011. Aerolíneas Argentinas S.A., with legal domicile in:547 Bouchard St. – 9th Floor – Zip Code: 1106 ABG - Buenos Aires - Argentina-" the National Bank, Banco Macro, Bank of the City of Buenos Aires, ''

La Nación ''La Nación'' () is an Argentine daily newspaper. As the country's leading conservative newspaper, ''La Nación''s main competitor is the more liberal ''Clarín (Argentine newspaper), Clarín''. It is regarded as a newspaper of record for Argen ...

'', Bunge y Born, the Macri Group, and most of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange leaders, as well as the local offices of a number of international companies, such as BankBoston,

BBVA Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (), better known by its initialism BBVA, is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Bilbao, with operative offices in Madrid. It is one of the largest financial institutions in the world, ...

, Citibank,

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc ( zh, t_hk=滙豐; initialism from its founding member The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business li ...

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

, Santander Bank, and Techint. It is also the location of much of the Florida Street retail district, the important Galerías Pacífico shopping arcade, Luna Park Arena, and the Corrientes Avenue cinema and

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...

district.Barriada: San Nicolás
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Image gallery

File:Buenos Aires - San Nicolás - Diagonal Norte.jpg, Pedestrian section of Diagonal Norte Avenue File:Fuente de la Plaza de Mayo.jpg, The National Bank and State Intelligence Offices (''left to right'') File:Safico Building Avenida Corrientes.jpg, Corrientes Avenue File:Buenos Aires - San Nicolás - Carlos Pellegrini.jpg, Corner of Corrientes and 9 July Avenues File:Buenos Aires - Jacarandá.jpg, Jacarandas in bloom, Lavalle Park File:Buenos Aires-Florida y Diagonal Norte-Subte Catedral.jpg, Florida Street at Diagonal Norte Avenue File:Teatro Cervantes 01.jpg, Cervantes Theatre File:CatedralMetropolitanaBA004.jpg, Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral File:Buenos Aires-ColonTeatre-P3050009.jpg, Teatro Colón File:Ex Banco Alemán Transatlántico.JPG, German Transatlantic Bank File:Torre Bouchard desde Alem.JPG, Torre Bouchard, the headquarters of Aerolíneas Argentinas File:Avenida Corrientes Jousten Hotel.jpg, Jousten Hotel File:Teatro Gran Rex Avenida Corrientes.jpg, Gran Rex Theatre File:Buenos Aires-Retiro(CatalinasNorte)-P3090002.JPG, Office buildings along Eduardo Madero Avenue File:Buenos_Aires-San_Nicolás-Luna_Park.jpg, Luna Park stadium

References

External links

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San Nicolás Neighbourhood
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{{DEFAULTSORT:San Nicolas, Buenos Aires Neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires