(1838–1921), founder of La Plata. After La Plata was designated the provincial capital, Rocha was placed in charge of creating the city. He hired urban planner
Pedro Benoit, who designed a city layout based on a
rationalist conception of urban centers. The city has the shape of a square with a central park and two main diagonal avenues, north to south and east to west. In addition, there are numerous other shorter diagonal streets. This design is copied in a
self-similar manner in small blocks of six by six blocks in length. For every six blocks, there is a small park or square. Other than the diagonal streets, all streets are on a rectangular grid and are numbered consecutively. Thus, La Plata is nicknamed "la ciudad de las diagonales" (city of diagonals). It is also called "la ciudad de los tilos" (city of
linden trees), because of the large number of linden trees lining the many streets and squares. The linden tree is one of a number of deciduous Northern Hemisphere tree species which dominate La Plata's parks and streets;
ash,
horsechestnut,
plane,
sweetgum and
tulip tree are among the other examples.
Palms and subtropical broadleaf evergreen trees thrive but are comparatively infrequent. The city design and its buildings are noted to possess strong
Freemason symbolism as a consequence of both Rocha and Benoit being Freemasons. The designs for the government buildings were chosen in an international architectural competition. Thus, the Governor Palace was designed by Italians, the City Hall by Germans, etc. Electric street lighting was installed in 1884 and was the first of its kind in Latin America.
Important landmarks The neo-Gothic
cathedral of La Plata is the largest church in Argentina. It is located on the central park, Plaza Moreno, and is the 58th tallest church in the world. The
Teatro Argentino de La Plata is one of the most important
opera houses in Argentina, second to the
Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. The construction was funded by the first inhabitants of La Plata, but as maintenance was very expensive it was later donated to the Province of Buenos Aires. On 18 October 1977, the building was almost completely destroyed by a fire. This has been noted as one of the largest losses to La Plata's historical heritage. It was later replaced by a new building, which houses the theatre's orchestra, choir and ballet, boasting several halls. The
Curutchet House is one of the two buildings by
Le Corbusier built in the Americas. The
University of La Plata was founded in 1897 and nationalized in 1905. It is well known for its
observatory and
natural history museum.
Ernesto Sabato graduated in physics at this university; he went on to teach at the
Sorbonne and the
MIT before becoming a famed novelist. Doctor
René Favaloro was another famous alumnus. During its early years, the university attracted a number of intellectuals from the Spanish-speaking world, such as Dominican
Pedro Henríquez Ureña. is on the corner of 48th and 5th Streets. It was the first chapel in La Plata and Pedro Benoit himself drew up the plans for the church. It was inaugurated on 19 November 1883, the first anniversary of the foundation of the city. Its
neo-Gothic style has been well kept, and the inner paintings are now being restored. Then-governor Rocha was the one to name it "San Ponciano". This was both in memory of his son Ponciano and in honor of
Pope Pontian. Inside the church is the "Virgen de Luján" niche, which was moved here in 1904.
La Plata in the 20th century Under
Alvear's administration (1922–1928),
Enrique Mosconi, the president of the state oil company
Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales, created the La Plata
distillery, at the time the tenth largest in the world. On 10 December 1945, in the Parish church of St. Francis of Assisi in this city,
Juan Domingo Perón and
Eva Duarte were married. In 1952, the city was renamed
Ciudad Eva Perón; its original name was restored in 1955. In March 1976, the Argentine military seized power following a coup d'état, which involved the disappearance of a number of students from La Plata. The military junta had implemented what was called the
National Reorganization Process which was a set of policies used by the regime to destroy left-wing guerrilla forces and oppress resistance to its rule. The process included kidnappings, torture and murder. Meanwhile, the
Montoneros, a leftist guerilla group, responded violently to the junta and its actions as they enlisted other Argentines to join their campaign against the regime. Those enlisted included young, left-wing, politically active students from the organization named the
Unión de Estudiantes Secundarios (Union of High School Students) of La Plata. The UES was committed to achieving school reforms and other political reforms through demonstrations and protests that irked the ruling regime. Many of these students were kidnapped and killed (many remain as '
desaparecidos') as part of the
state's terrorism during the
dictatorship. In October 1998,
UNESCO approved the city's bid to gain recognition as a
World Heritage site. The approval is still pending due to various objections to the criterion of maintaining architectural and landscape features during recent decades, which in the opinion of other specialists, has caused severe damage to the original design and contextual aesthetics.
Sports and stadiums The city is home to two important
first division football teams:
Estudiantes de La Plata and
Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata. Estudiantes de La Plata is the most successful club in the city, having won seven national tournaments, four
Copa Libertadores and the
Intercontinental Cup against the
Manchester United in 1968. It is the origin of several symbols of Argentine football such as
Osvaldo Zubeldía,
Carlos Bilardo,
Alejandro Sabella,
Juan Ramón and
Juan Sebastián Verón. Estudiantes has had a great influence on the
Argentine National Team, mainly through Bilardo in the
1986 World Cup. Its successes and its style of play, normally called
bilardismo, have placed it in the position of exponent of a football style deeply rooted in the country. For its part, Gimnasia de La Plata, founded in 1887, has not obtained titles in the professional era, but it is a traditional First Division club. The
Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, also known as the "Estadio Único", opened on 7 June 2003, as one of the most modern football stadiums in Latin America. Various other construction and renovation projects have continued, including the addition of a roof structure.
Estudiantes played in the new stadium from 2006 to 2019 while their
own stadium was being modernized; Estudiantes returned to its traditional home ground of
Jorge Luis Hirschi Stadium in 2019.
Gimnasia La Plata has only played occasional home games in the Estadio Único. In 2011, the Estadio Ciudad de La Plata was one of the host sites for the
2011 Copa America including an opening-round match between
Argentina and
Bolivia, a semi-final game, and the third-place final. Now, the stadium is additionally used for concerts and
Puma matches.
Jorge Luis Hirschi Stadium, the home ground of Estudiantes, is located on 1st Avenue in La Plata.
Estadio Juan Carmelo Zerillo, the home ground of Gimnasia La Plata, is located in a park known as El Bosque. During 2009, following a series of agreements between the city municipality, the governor of the province and the nation's presidency, progress was made in the final transfer of the land of the Paseo del Bosque to
Estudiantes and
Gimnasia La Plata clubs. On 24 June 2009, the Deliberative Council adopted the convention and the ordinance for which Gimnasia and Estudiantes clubs received "grants" for the lands on which their home grounds are currently located within El Bosque (The Forest).
Elections and civic advances On 28 October 2007,
Pablo Bruera was elected mayor with 26% of the votes, replacing
Julio Alak, who had been mayor since 1991. On 25 February 2009, La Plata debuted a parking system that uses text messaging (SMS), thus becoming the first city in Argentina to control parking using technology applications. The Pasaje Rodrigo, a traditional "galería" (the older version of shopping malls in Argentina), reopened its doors in April 2009 as Pasaje Rodrigo shopping mall, after having been closed to the public for 10 years. It had originally been opened in 1929 by Spanish immigrant Basilio Rodrigo. On 25 October 2015, Julio Garro was elected mayor with 41.35% of the votes, replacing
Pablo Bruera, who had been mayor since 2007. Garro was reelected for a second term in 2019. In the
2023 local elections, former mayor Alak defeated Garro in an historically close election. ==Geography==