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Bahía Blanca is a city located by the Atlantic Ocean, in Province of Buenos Aires, in the east of Argentina. It has an important sea port 40 feet deep almost all along the extension of the bay - actually an estuary - where the Naposta stream drains. Its name means "White Bay" in English, so-called because of the typical colour of the salt covering the soils surrounding the shores. It has a population of 274,509 inhabitants according to the last (2001) census and is the head town of the department named after it, Partido de Bahía Blanca . The bay was discovered by Hernando de Magallanes during the first trip around the world, in 1520, under the orders of Charles I of Spain and V of Germany.

Foundation

The city was founded as a fortress in 1828 by Colonel Ramon Estomba under the orders of the Governor of Buenos Aires, Juan Manuel de Rosas, being named Fortaleza Protectora Argentina ('Argentine Protective Fortress'), intended to protect dwellers and their cattle from native rustling and also intended to protect the coast from Brazil's navy which had landed in the area the previous year. The fortress was attacked by the malones (hordes of nomad natives mounted on horseback) several times, most notably in 1859 by 3,000 Calfucurá warriors. It became commercially important after the construction of a railroad by the British in 1885 linking the city of Buenos Aires to the town. In doing so, the trade of grains from the Pampas was much facillitated. The fast growth of the local economy, the remarkably benign Argentine laws towards immigration from Europe and the abundance of natural resouces of the country attracted many immigrants, mainly from Spain and Italy and a remarkable amount from France who settled in Pigüé, about 125 km to the North of the city. They were visited in 1984 by the President of France, Mr François Miterrand alongside his host, President Dr Raúl Alfonsín. Another important foreign settlement close to the city was of Dutch settlers, in Tres Arroyos, located about 250 km north east. They were recently visited by HM Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, her heir HRH Prince Willem-Alexander and her daughter-in-law HRH Princess Máxima, née Máxima Zorreguieta, in Argentina, raised and educated in Buenos Aires.

European immigrants brought their uses and customs which combined and fused with the already existing social conceptions . There were at least five opera houses in Bahia Blanca at the beggining of XXth century and six cinemas by 1920.

Puerto Belgrano, located 29 km to the southwest, is Argentina's largest naval base. Its construction started with a secret decree signed by Argentine President José Evaristo Uriburu. It was designed and built by the turn of the 19th century (1898-05-12 to 1902-03-08) by Engineer Luigi Luiggi, born in Genoa, Italy and carried out by a Dutch company named Dirks, Dates & Van Hattem (follow the link on footpage for a more detailed history of its characteristics).

Some Present features

Bahía Blanca is an important trans-shipping and commercial center, handling the large export trade of grains and wool from the southern area of Buenos Aires Province, oil from Neuquén Province, and fruit from the Río Negro Valley. Its group of sea ports is one of the most important in the country (http://www.puertobahiablanca.com), as the only ones that are naturally 10-metre (33 feet) deep, although its depth is kept at 40 feet by regular maintenance. Along the north shore of the bay, these ports are Puerto Ingeniero White for grain, and Puerto Galván, a smaller one specialising in sunflower and soy oil, and chemicals such as urea. One of the largest urea industrial producers in the world, Profertil, is located there. Between these two main ports, several industrial and chemical plants operate their own piers. The petrochemical pole of the region made the port a very convenient one. Competence between Puerto de Bahia Blanca and those located in the shores of Patagonia (heavily subsidized by provincial governments through the National Treasury) made it stronger and very well organized. The combination of a railroad network for grains linking Rosario (Province of Santa Fe, by the shore of River Parana) to Bahia Blanca, its trade potential, linking also Bahia Blanca to Zapala, very close to the border to Chile and then to the Pacific Ocean shores avoiding days of navigation, the availability of energy (natural gas and electricity) and human resources make the area a quite interesting one from the industrial and commercial perspectives.

There are two daily short-haul flights from Bahia Blanca (BHI) to the domestic flights airport at Buenos Aires (AEP) named "Aeroparque" during weekdays and once a day on Saturday and Sunday, whose carrier is just one: Aerolineas Argentinas. The local airport's runways belong to the Navy Aviation (BACE, standing for Base Aero Naval Comandante Espora). There is a civilian terminal supported by the City Council appart from the military one. The bus terminal of the city, in the process of being remodelled, services the whole country. The bus transportation system has a wider range of short, medium and long haul connections and destinations offering lots of overnight trips from Bahia Blanca to Buenos Aires, to hundreds of cities and towns throughout the country and also to neighbourg countries such as Chile.

Culture and Education

The city is a developed one including cultural and educational aspects. It has a permanent Symphony Orchestra, Classical Ballet (Ballet del Sur), a tertiary education institute which is due to become a university shortly (Instituto Juan XXIII, http://www.juan23.edu.ar, the future University Don Bosco), another tertiary institute of humanities (Instituto Avanza) and two National Universities: one is Universidad Tecnologica Nacional ) (National Technological University, on http://www.frbb.utn.edu.ar), devoted mainly to exact sciences and intended for students who do have a job for making a living, with formal activities in the evening. The other important national university is named National University of the South (Universidad Nacional del Sur) and was founded in January 1956. It has associated internationally-known institutes of research in biological and biochemical sciences and technological sciences such as INIBIB and Instituto de Oceanografia, among others. One of its Directors, Dr Francisco Barrantes has been recently appointed as a member of the Executive Council of the Academy of Sciences of Latin America for the term 2006-2012. He is a reputed and well known scientist whose research on proteins of the Central Nervous System is considered as a reference for many of his international and national colleagues. Both national universities are free of tuiton fees for all students.

Nobel laureate César Milstein was raised in Bahía Blanca. He studied at the Colegio Nacional and graduated as "Bachiller" in 1944. Then he moved to Buenos Aires where he completed his education and university degree, starting his research in Biochemistry at Instituto Malbran, after which he moved to the United Kingdom, becoming Professor at Cambridge University, where he was awarded Nobel Prize for the discovery and development of monoclonal antibodies for which he did not register any patent, which may otherwise have made him very rich. He thought his discovery was intellectual property of mankind and as such he left his intellectual legacy: of no financial but only scientific interest.

The educational system has been transformed by the Province of Buenos Aires and it is still being modified. What used to be a system with primary (mandatory) and secondary (non-mandatory) education before pursuing university studies (the 'French model') became Basic General Education (mandatory) and Polimodal Education (the 'Spanish-Catalan model') although nowadays it is being reviewed and likely to be modified again. Free education is granted by the state although there are semi-private and private schools.

There are local foreign language schools such as the Asociacion Bahiense de Cultura Inglesa (English), the Alliance Française (French), the Dante Alighieri Society (Italian) and Goethe-Institut (German), all of them private although with a good amount of students.

Overview of Religions

The city has a neoclassical Cathedral which is the See of the Archdiocese of Bahía Blanca, related to the Dioceses of the whole Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. The Archbishop is, as of 2005, HVRE Monsignor Guillermo José Garlatti whose Pallio was imposed by HH Pope John Paul II in a Formal Mass of Imposition at St Peter's Square on 28 June 2003 (St Peter's & St Paul's Day). The vast majority of the inhabitants of the city are Roman Catholics alhough there are Protestant churches and a Synagogue. There is no Mosque in Bahía Blanca although there are Muslims. There is religious tolerance with no signs of discrimination by religious belief, a common nationwide argentinian feature.

Architecture

The city has the common features of all those founded by the Spanish and his descendants: a main square at the centre surrounded by main buldings. The City Hall and the Church, on opposite although facing sides. Buildings of administrative importance do also surround the main square or located nearby. The planning which took place before its foundation and during its early beggining conceived streets parallel to the sides of the main square. Almost all the blocks are then rectangular in shape. As the city developed theh streets were continued and more rectangular blocks were added at the edges. The Administration of the City decided then to observe a plan of development probably about 1960's, when it was decided that further developments would follow established criteria according to their purpose: permanent dwellers, public places, industries. Most of the city has terraced houses although detached houses surrounded by extensive gardens are more developed in some areas such as "barrio Palihue", with an adjacent golf course (Club de Golf Palihue). "Barrio Patagonia" and closed country clubs for permanent and also for week-end dwellers were designed and developed at the outskirts of the city.

The architecture of Bahia Blanca is notable as well. Public buildings such as the Banco de la Nación, Bahía Blanca Chamber of Commerce (the stock exchange, on http://www.bolsacombblanca.com.ar ), the main Post Office, the former building of the local newspaper La Nueva Provincia [1], the City Hall, the Rectorate and academic departments of Universidad del Sur, its 'Casa de la Cultura', Teatro Municipal (Opera House of the city), "Biblioteca Rivadavia" and Club Argentino, amongst others, are well-considered pieces of architecture, most of them extremely well preserved. Some of them are of French Neoclassical influence (L'École des Beaux Arts, Paris).

General aspects, shopping, administration, museums

Two shopping centres are located at the outskirts of the city and many shops in the centre itself are quite active and offer a variety of first line goods and products. On week-ends, mainly on Saturday there is a craftmanship fair in the street at Plaza Rivadavia, the main square, where all kind of hand made goods are available. There is also a variety of megastores, some of them locally and regionally developed competing with branches of international companies. Most of them are open even on Sundays, although this is now under review and local unions have lobbied for businesses and shops to close on Sundays. The interim City Mayor also seems to favour this initiative.

The interim Mayor is in office due to a local political crisis from which the elected Mayor requested time-off leave which was granted by the City Council at the time that a judiciary process has started -and continues being carried on by the Judiciary system-. It is unclear if he will be allowed to take over again although up to the moment and given the present situation it is strongly suspected that this is quite unlikely and the interim Mayor and former President of the City Council would then complete the present term.

There are several museums in the city which include the Port Museum, the History Museum, the Fine Arts Museum and the Contemporary Arts Museum, the last one headed by Betiana Gerardi.

A very peculiar and quite interesting museum is the one organized by the Army at its local See (Comando del Cuerpo de Ejército V, on http://www.vtocuerpo.ejercito.mil.ar) at which a miniaturized recreation of the original Fortress is on display, made by César Puliafito, as well as a quite interesting collection of ancient maps and pieces alongside one of the most important -and rather unknown- libraries of history in the region: this one and the one of the Salesians, at Inspectoría San Francisco Javier (Head of the Salesians Order for the whole Patagonia) have fantastic collections with many priceless documents related to the conquest and civilization of Patagonia, almost completely carried out by the Army and the Salesians. The Army Museum of History of Bahia Blanca is open to the public with guided tours being available on appointment. All museums in the city have free admission.

Other libraries of the city are the main public one, whose building has been already named: Biblioteca Bernardino Rivadavia, one of the oldest of the area with a superb collection of books, musical recordings, journals and magazines. The library of Universidad Nacional del Sur, is alro remarkable and open to the public, not only to the students. The are also smaller libraries in the different neighbourgs, most of them assisted and supported by the City Council.

Multiple green spaces have been created in the city: Plaza Rivadavia (its main square), Plaza 9 de Julio, Plaza Villa Mitre, Plaza Maldonado, Paseo de las Esculturas and Parque de Mayo are the most familiar ones.

Bahia Blanca has also two zoos: a municipal one, with a variety of species and permanent veterinarians and personnel looking after them and a private one, in the outskirts of the town. Besides the usual areas included when the city is to be shown to somebody who is unfamiliar with it, other areas of interest include the Barrio Inglés ('English Quarter') where the British foremen and technicians who built the railways and ports lived. Villa Harding Green is a suburb where the railway and port managers lived.

At the shores close to the city there are recreational places such as "Balneario Maldonado" and "Colón" although the characteristics of the estuary -the soil is mud instead of sand or pebbles- are not ideal for pleasant beaches with sand given which the inhabitants of the city must reach the south east limits of the estuary, about 100 km away, named Pehuén-Có and Monte Hermoso. Both are popular beaches with good facilities, hotels and proterties to rent during the summer, with warm water.

Sports

Facilities for playing basketball, football, tennis, rugby, golf, indoors swimming and some other sports are easily available throughout the area. Since the 1950s, Bahía has been considered the lead city of Argentine basketball. Emanuel Ginóbili (NBA, San Antonio Spurs, Texas), "Pepe" Sanchez (playing at present), Alberto Cabrera (deceased) and Atilio Fruet (retired), among others, are well-known at national and international levels. The city's main football (soccer) teams are Olimpo and Villa Mitre. The first one played in the Argentine first division until relegation in 2006. Argentina national football team coach Alfio Basile is also a bahiense.

Health and publications

The illiteracy rate of the city, as well as the neonatal mortality rate, is among the lowest in the country (besides the national censusus which take place every ten years, the Ministry of Economy carries periodically out censuses sampling areas collecting data on economic and social indexes, named Encuesta Permanente de Hogares, among others. (See argentinean national statistics and demographic indexes on http://www.indec.mecon.ar/default.htm,in Spanish).

There is one local and regional newspaper (already cited) and regularly published indexed scientific journals such as "Revista de la Asociación Médica de Bahía Blanca" (Bahía Blanca Medical Association Journal [2] written in Spanish although abstracts are also available in English.

There is a big regional provincial hospital named "Hospital Interzonal Dr Jose Penna" and a municipal one -also big- named "Centro de Salud Dr Leonidas Lucero", both of them tertiary centres for assistance and referalls throughout the region. The health care system is free of charge to any legal resident of the nation. Public health is the responsibility of both the Province of Buenos Aires and the City, which have a chain of public clinics throughout the city and the region taking care of people as primary health carers. There are also private health care institutions. There is one physician for every 266 inhabitants. Public health is coordinated between the Ministry of Health of the Province of Buenos Aires, who has a delegate in Bahia Blanca (Zona Sanitaria I), and the city administration under the supervision of the local Secretary of Health appointed directly by the city mayor. Aspects of interest about the City and Council Administration can be found on http://www.bahiablanca.gov.ar (Spanish and English)

Consulates

The city is the seat of several foreign consulates including the Spanish, Italian and Chilean. There are also Honorary Consuls of France ) and the Netherlands. Their local websites are on the links cited below.

http://www.mae.es/consulados/bahiablanca , for the Spanish Consulate, http://www.itabahiablanca.org.ar , for the Italian Consulate, http://www.conchilebahiablanca.com.ar , for the Chilean Consulate and http://www.icilafrance.com.ar/homepage.asp?frc=14&frciu=11 , for the Honorary French Consulate at Bahia Blanca.

• Template:En icon Bahía Blanca Port
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