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Rosario is the largest city of the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, and the third most populous in the country, after Buenos Aires and C rdoba. It is located 285 km northwest of Buenos Aires, on the right-hand (western) shore of the Paran River. ... more »
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Hotels Rosario is the largest city of the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, and the third most populous in the country, after Buenos Aires and Córdoba. It is located 285 km northwest of Buenos Aires, on the right-hand (western) shore of the Paraná River. It has about 910,000 inhabitants as per the 2001 census [INDEC].
Rosario is the head town of the Rosario Department and forms the core of Argentina's "Industrial Corridor". Its suburbia and several neighboring towns form a metropolitan area, Greater Rosario, with 1,121,441 inhabitants, making it the third-largest conurbation in the country.
Rosario lies on the ravine of the right-hand shore of the Paraná, about 24 m above mean sea level, in a place with a natural slope to the low shore. The point of origin of the city is Plaza 25 de Mayo ("May 25 Square"), now surrounded by the Municipality (Palacio de los Leones), the Basilica Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary, the Central Post Office, the Decorative Art Museum and a building called La Bola de Nieve ("The Snowball"). Between the Cathedral and the municipal building is Pasaje Juramento ("Oath Passage"), leading to the Flag Memorial. The streets mostly follow a regular checkerboard pattern.
The city has about 40 urban bus lines, and several short-distance lines that serve the whole metropolitan area. The urban buses charge a relatively small fee (owing to the national government's heavy subsidies on fuel for public transportation), pre-paid by means of a disposable paper card with a magnetic stripe which can be bought from post offices, automatic vending machines, and private businesses. For emergencies, a larger fee can be deposited in cash, using a coin machine in the bus unit. The interurban lines have differential fees and some allow payment in cash only.
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The urban bus fleet was partially renewed during the recovery of the national economy, since 2003; as of 2005 the average age of the buses is 5 years and 11 months. The better economic context has also induced an increased use of public transportation, and comparatively less use of bicycles. According to the Rosario Transportation Office, in 2005 there were about 11 million bus trips per month.
The Bus Terminal (Terminal de Ómnibus Mariano Moreno), from which long-distance buses depart, is placed in a central geographic location, some 25 blocks from the "town center", in front of the Patio de la Madera complex. A secondary node is located in the center, on Plaza Sarmiento. A bus trip from Rosario to Buenos Aires takes about four hours. In January 2006 the Terminal saw a daily average of 900 bus arrivals and departures (about 36,000 passengers).
Rosario has a medium-sized taxi fleet, with units painted black and outlined in yellow. Some belong to radio-taxi companies and can be reserved by telephone; others only in the streets. As the economy of Argentina recovers, the capacity of the taxi fleet has been strained by higher usage. In September 2005, the Deliberative Council approved a moderate rise in taxi fees and the compulsory installation of radio-call systems in all taxi units.
As a curiosity, Rosario has a large number of vehicles which run on natural gas, as it happens also in Argentina as a whole, and all gas stations provide it. Its price is quite low compared to the alternatives. The idea to transform all buses to this system did not prosper; most buses run on cheap (subsidized) diesel, and one line uses electricity from an aerial network.
Rosario is linked to the rest of the country by a number of roads: the Aramburu Highway (southeast, to Buenos Aires), National Route 9 (from Buenos Aires to Rosario and then north and west up to Jujuy and Bolivia), National Route 11 (to the north of Santa Fe, Formosa and Paraguay), National Route 33 (to the southwest of Santa Fe and the province of Buenos Aires, and then through National Route 7 to San Luis, Mendoza and Chile), and National Route 34 (north to Santiago del Estero, Tucumán and Bolivia).
The Rosario Airport is located far from the urbanized area, some 13 km away from the center, partly in the municipal jurisdiction of Funes. After decades of stagnation, in recent years it has expanded its technical capacities and can now service international flights.
The Port of Rosario, located on the shore of the southern part of the city, is dredged to a depth of 34 feet and can serve Panamax kind vessels. It is managed by an autonomous public entity that oversees a concession to a mixed Spanish-Argentine corporation. In 2003 its traffic amounted to 2.9 million tonnes.
The passenger train system was severely damaged by the privatization of most railway companies in the early 1990s, but is slowly recovering. The lines of the Nuevo Central Argentino railway company service most of the cargo. Additionally, two private passenger railway companies provide limited services to several major cities. Trenes de Buenos Aires runs weekly trains south to Retiro Station (Buenos Aires) and north to Santa Fe. The company Ferrocentral also operates weekly trains south to Buenos Aires and northwest to Córdoba and Tucumán.
There is an ongoing project to build a Buenos Aires-Rosario-Córdoba high-speed railway, scheduled to be started in 2007. Once finished, in 2010, a high-speed train will join Rosario to Buenos Aires in 90 minutes at 250 km/h, while a high-yield conventional diesel train will reach Córdoba in about 2½ hours.
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The permanent settlement of today's Rosario area began of the 17th century. There was no clear foundation date. The first landowner was Captain Luis Romero de Pineda, and the first formal colonial settlement was initiated by Santiago de Montenegro, who was appointed Mayor in 1751.
On 27 February 1812, General Manuel Belgrano raised the newly created Argentine flag on the shores of the Paraná, for the first time.
Until the 1850s Rosario was a small village of 3,000 inhabitants, with its port banned from foreign trade by a 1841 decree of Juan Manuel de Rosas. On 5 August 1852 Rosario was declared a city after a request by Justo José de Urquiza, who also opened up international trade. By 1880, Rosario had become the first export outlet of Argentina; in 1887 it had about 50,000 inhabitants. It was even declared the federal capital in three occasions, but each time it was vetoed by the Executive Branch.
In the last 15 years of the century, the city more than doubled in population, in part owing to immigration. Demographic growth took its toll of bad living conditions, epidemics and labour exploitation. By 1926 Rosario had 407,000 inhabitants, 47% of them foreign, many brought from Europe in the wake of World War I.
In 1946 Rosario massively supported Juan Perón's rise to power. The city received the benefits of the nationalization and subsidizing of many industries. Perón was deposed in 1955. In 1969 workers and students took the streets to protest against the dictatorship (Rosariazo). During the dictatorship started in 1976, hundreds of citizens were "disappeared" by the government. The city hosted some matches of the Football World Cup 1978.
In 1983 Argentina returned to democratic rule. Hyperinflation caused an economic collapse of the country in 1989. In Rosario there were episodes of looting. Under the Menem administration the situation became worse as the industrial sector of the city was dismantled by foreign competition and the agricultural exports stagnated. In 1995 unemployment in the area reached 21.1%, and a large part of Rosario's population fell under the poverty line. Since then, villas miseria (shantytowns) have grown, usually augmented by internal migration from poorer areas of the country (particularly Chaco); the last survey (1996) indicated the presence of 91 "precarious urban settlements", with 115,000 inhabitants.
Since the recovery of the national economy that followed the 2001 collapse, Rosario's economic situation has improved. The boom in agricultural exports has caused a large amount of consumer spending and investment. Mayor Miguel Lifschitz's administration is taking advantage of the economic boom to invest heavily in public works, as well as public health (which takes up about a quarter of the whole budget).
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The Rosario area has a Pampean temperate climate, with average temperatures of 23.4 °C (maximum) and 11.6 °C (minimum), and an annual rainfall of 1,038 mm. Snow is almost unheard of (the last instance was in 1973); serious earthquakes, hurricanes and volcanic eruptions are virtually impossible. Lonely Planet Language Guides (external source)
Distances are calculated as the crow flies, and are provided as an aid in planning only.
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