San Luis () is the capital city of

San Luis Province San Luis () is a province of Argentina located near the geographical center of the country (on the 32° South parallel). Neighboring provinces are, from the north clockwise, La Rioja, Córdoba, La Pampa, Mendoza and San Juan. History The cit ...

in the Cuyo region of

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

. It is also the seat of the Juan Martín de Pueyrredón Department.

City information

Points of interest in the city include the Park of the Nations, the neoclassical cathedral, a number of museums including the ''Dora Ochoa De Masramón Provincial Museum'', and the colonial architecture. A number of landmarks honor the

Argentine War of Independence The Argentine War of Independence ( es, Guerra de Independencia de Argentina, links=no) was a secessionist civil war fought from 1810 to 1818 by Argentine patriotic forces under Manuel Belgrano, Juan José Castelli and José de San Martín ...

, as well. Independence Park features an equestrian monument to General

José de San Martín José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras (25 February 177817 August 1850), known simply as José de San Martín () or '' the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru'', was an Argentine general and the primary leader of the southern and centr ...

, liberator of Argentina,

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

and

Perú , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

. Nearby Pringles Plaza honors Colonel Juan Pascual Pringles, one of San Martín's chief adjutants and, briefly, Governor of San Luis Province. Fishing in the nearby

Lake Potrero de los Funes Lake Potrero de los Funes (''Embalse Potrero de los Funes'') is a reservoir 18 km (11 mi) northeast of San Luis, Argentina. Overview The site, originally located in a corral belonging to the prominent Funes family of San Luis, was first ...

, and other locations, is also popular. The Sierra de las Quijadas National Park is located from the city.

Transport

National Route 7 connects San Luis to Mendoza, to the west, and

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, to the east. San Luis Airport is located less than north of the city centre, and has regular flights to Buenos Aires.

History

San Luis was founded on August 25, 1594, by

Luis Jufré de Loaysa y Meneses Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

. The settlement was later abandoned, and was reestablished in 1632 by

Martín García Oñez de Loyola Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austra ...

as ''San Luis de Loyola Nueva Medina de Río Seco''. By the end of the 19th century, San Luis had 7,000 inhabitants, and in 1882 the

Argentine Great Western Railway The Argentine Great Western Railway (AGWR) (in Spanish: Ferrocarril Gran Oeste Argentino) was a British-owned railway company, founded in 1887, that operated a broad gauge, , railway network in the Argentine provinces of San Luis, San Juan and ...

reached the city on its way to Chile. The following year, work began on the cathedral. The Governor's Executive Building, designed in French renaissance architecture, was completed in 1911. The city's population reached 40,000 in 1960, and grew rapidly afterwards, when light industry and growing numbers of retirees began to migrate to the area; at the , its population was 153,322. Because the city is located at the part of the Sierras Grandes known as ''Punta de los Venados'' (Deer Point), the inhabitants of the city are called ''puntanos''.

Geography

San Luis lies at the foot of the Sierras Grandes, along the northern bank of the Chorrillos River, and is set on a

dry pampas The Semi-arid Pampas, also known as the Dry Pampas, is a temperate grassland ecoregion of central Argentina. Setting The Semi-arid Pampas cover an area of , including western Buenos Aires Province, southern Cordoba and San Luis Provinces and m ...

plateau, around above sea level.

Climate

San Luis has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(''Cwa'', according to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

) and it closely borders a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi ...

(''BSk''). Summers are hot and humid, and winters are cool and dry, with temperatures falling below sometimes and

snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughou ...

falls can occur occasionally. The hottest month, January, has an average temperature of , and the coldest month, July, has an average of . The annual average temperature is .

Gallery

File:Municipalidad de San Luis.JPG, City Hall File:Andén de la ex-estación de trenes de San Luis.jpg, Former railway station (1907), today a cultural centre File:Colegio Nacional de San Luis (19403983300).jpg, San Luis National College File:Plaza Pringles, San Luis.jpg, Plaza Pringles

References

Notes

External links

Official Site
(Spanish) *

(English)
CuyoNoticias digital newspaper
(Spanish-English) {{Authority control Populated places in San Luis Province Capitals of Argentine provinces Populated places established in 1594 Cities in Argentina