Adrogué

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Location of Almirante Brown in Greater Buenos Aires

Adrogué (pronounced [adʀəˈgɛ]) is a city in Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, located 23 km south of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of the Almirante Brown partido (district).

With slightly more than 30,000 inhabitants, it stands out as a distinguished residential area, with numerous cobbled streets, lush trees and several squares. In addition, it has an important commercial center, with a variety of shops and bank entities.

1 History
- 1.1 Borges and Adrogué
- 1.2 Las Delicias Hotel
2 Origin of the name
3 Notable people
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] History

Governor Mariano Acosta passed, in March 1873, the projected sketch map for this town, and named it Almirante Brown. This sketch map was designed by Nicolás and José Canale, two renowned Italian architects, who included a number of diagonals and squares, which later inspired the urban design for the city of La Plata. The Canales were also the authors of most of the public buildings in Adrogué (the Town Palace, the first church for Saint Gabriel, Castelforte, etc.) and for the church of the Inmaculada Concepción in the neighbourhood of Belgrano ("La Redonda").

[edit] Borges and Adrogué

Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentine writer, loved the city so much and spent many summers during his childhood there, that he dedicated a book with poems under the city's name. An excerpt goes:

"Wherever in the world I might sense the smell of gum trees, I feel as if I had been take back to Adrogué. And that is exactly what Adrogué was: a large and quite maze of streets surrounded by lush trees and country houses, a maze of many peaceful nights that my parents liked to traverse. Country houses in which you could guess how life was behind those country houses. In some way, I have always been there, I am always here. You take the places with yourself, the places are within yourself. I am still among the gum trees and labyrinths, that place where you can easily get lost. I guess you might as well get lost in Paradise. Bizarre statues turn pretty, a ruin that is not a ruin, a tennis court. And then, in the very Las Delicias Hotel, a big room with mirrors. I have certainly found myself in those infinite looking glasses. Many arguments, many scenes, many poems that I imagined were born in Adrogué or were fixed in Adrogué. Whenever I talk about gardens, whenever I talk about trees, I am in Adrogué; I have thought about that city, it is unnecessary to name it." (1981)

[edit] Las Delicias Hotel

Las Delicias Hotel was inaugurated on December 1st, 1872. It had been previously Esteban Adrogué's private residence, but he decided to turn it into a hotel in response to the wealthy families looking for a place to settle down in the area with the intention of building country houses, and his wish to turn this place into a summer resort. Thus, in 1873, Las Delicias Hotel was the preferred summer shelter by notable Argentines. Visiting and staying in this place was at that time a respected distinction. Sarmiento, president of Argentina from 1868 to 1874, was one of those who enjoyed its facilities. The name of the hotel is due to Mr. Ochoa, friend of Esteban Adrogué, who exclaimed before the splendor "this is a delight" (delicia is Spanish for delight).

[edit] Origin of the name

The origin of the name is due to its founder, Esteban Adrogué, who also founded Lomas de Zamora and donated lands for the installation of the train station, the town hall, the main square and some other important buildings.

He suggested that the train station be called Almirante Brown, but since that name had been used already and it was customary to name it after the land donator, it was finally called Adrogué station. As a matter of fact, for more than 100 years, the city was officially called Almirante Brown, a name used only for official purposes, until a law stated that the name Adrogué should be used for this locality in the late 1990s.

[edit] Notable people

Notable natives of the city include:

Carlos Pellegrini (1846 - 1906), president of Argentina
Juan Gujis (born 1946), publicist and TV announcer
Ricardo López Murphy (born 1951), economist-politician
Fernando Redondo (born 1969), soccer player
Dolores Fonzi (born 1978), actress

[edit] Trivia

The layout of the squares in Adrogué follows the same layout as Fleet Admiral Brown's ships, and the squares are named after the corresponding ship's commander.

The two local theaters, Cine Adrogué and Cine Argentino, were closed down around the beginning of the 1990s. One of them was turned into a shopping mall, which went to bankruptcy about a year after opening its doors and finally became the House of Culture.

[edit] External links

General information

(Spanish) Almirante Brown's town hall website
(Spanish) TodoAdrogué provides general information about the city, including a commercial directory, phone numbers, on-going cultural events and many more
(Spanish) Adrogue.net is another Adrogué portal providing general information

Cultural institutions