Buenos Aires
Administrative, financial, and cultural capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires is a thriving city of more than 11 million people.
Industrial city, chief port, and capital of Argentina, situated in the ‘Capital Federal’ – a separate federal district, on the south bank of the Río de la Plata, at its estuary; population (2001 est) 13,756,000. Industries include motor vehicles, engineering, oil, chemicals, textiles, paper, and food processing. Main exports are grain, beef, and wool, which are produced in the surrounding pampas. The administrative Federal District of Buenos Aires has an area of 200 sq km/77 sq mi and a population of (2001 est) 2,729,500. Buenos Aires is the financial and cultural centre of Argentina, and has many museums and libraries. It is a major railway terminus, and has an international airport 35 km/22 mi southwest of the city centre.
Features
Congress building (1906); town hall, the Cabildo; cathedral (1804); presidential palace, the Casa Rosada (the Pink House) on the Plaza de Mayo; University of Buenos Aires, founded in 1821; opera house, the Teatro Colón; avenues built in the early 20th century, modelled on those in Paris, including 9 de Julio, which was built in 1937 and was modelled on the Champs Elysées.
History
Founded in 1536 by the Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza as Puerto de Santa Mariá del Buen Aire, it was abandoned after attacks by American Indians (Querandi), and refounded in 1580. It became the capital of the viceroyalty of Rió de la Plata in 1776, and federal capital of Argentina in 1880.
Buenos Aires
| Largest province, both in terms of area and population, in Argentina; area 308,758 sq km/119,211 sq mi; population (1996) 307,571 (both figures excluding the federal capital). The capital is located at La Plata. The province has a river coastline on the Río de la Plata (River Plate), in the northeast, of about 240 km/149 mi, and in the east and south an Atlantic coastline of nearly 1,600 km/994 mi.The chief agricultural products of Buenos Aires province are cereals, particularly wheat, maize, sorghum, and flax; other crops include fruit and vegetables. Cattle- and sheep-rearing are important, as are the timber industry and the mining of granite, gypsum, sand, limestone, and quartzite. |
| The province contains a third of the country's population, excluding the inhabitants of the federal capital itself. Economically, it is by far the country's most important province, both for its agricultural produce and industrial manufactures. Industrial capacity is concentrated in the city of Buenos Aires and its environs, including the suburbs of Avellaneda, Quilmes, and the towns of La Plata, General San Martín, and San Nicholas. |
| The land surface of Buenos Aires province is a vast monotonous grass-covered plain, the only hills being in the southwest, well-watered by sluggish rivers and some lakes, none of which can be used for transport. The summers are hot and the winters warm, and the rainfall adequate for cultivation. Snow and frosts are very rare. The soil is extremely fertile, being a deep stoneless loam. There are no natural woodlands. |
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