San Antonio de Padua, or plainly Padua, is a city in the

Greater Buenos Aires Greater Buenos Aires ( es, Gran Buenos Aires, GBA), also known as the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area ( es, Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires, AMBA), refers to the urban agglomeration comprising the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and the adj ...

, in

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 located in

Merlo Partido Merlo is a '' partido'' of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is located in Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, west of the city of Buenos Aires. Its capital is the city of Merlo. The region of the present-day partido was colonized shortly afte ...

. The city has an area of and a population of around 38,000. The name commemorates the village founded by

Francisco de Merlo Francisco de Merlo (1693-1758) was a Spanish notary and politician, who served during the Viceroyalty of Peru as Notary Mayor of the Government of Buenos Aires. He was the founder of the city of Merlo (Buenos Aires Province), and also took part ...

, Villa San Antonio del Camino in 1755, named for the Portuguese saint

Anthony of Padua Anthony of Padua ( it, Antonio di Padova) or Anthony of Lisbon ( pt, António/Antônio de Lisboa; born Fernando Martins de Bulhões; 15 August 1195 – 13 June 1231) was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. He was bo ...

. The city is on one of the major rail and road arteries and is well connected to the most important cities of the western Greater Buenos Aires. Padua is bordered by the partido of Ituzaingó (north and east), other ''localidades'' of Merlo (west and southwest) and Libertad (south). Padua is basically a flat, low-rise city, with few buildings over two stories, so the skyline is still dominated by the spire of the ''Church of San Antonio de Padua''. The building emerges in the center of a peaceful middle-class neighborhood of white-painted and red-barrel-tiles-roofed houses. The church was inaugurated in 1931 and few years later a

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

monastery and a catholic school were erected at its side. The church was built in a

Romanesque style Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 11th century, this later ...

and is one of the Padua's landmark buildings. The commercial center is around the main avenue, ''Avenida Noguera'', stretching six blocks from the railroad station, ''Estación San Antonio de Padua'' to the east. The city status was conferred on September 11, 1974 by the Buenos Aires (Province) Legislature.

History

The present-day territory of Padua was

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...

until the 1920s. This area —between the towns of Ituzaingó and Merlo— was filled with many

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is use ...

s when members of the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

community founded the Ituzaingó Golf Club in 1919. The

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

club took its name from the nearby town of Ituzaingó and almost all of its first members were

white-collar worker A white-collar worker is a person who performs professional, desk, managerial, or administrative work. White-collar work may be performed in an office or other administrative setting. White-collar workers include job paths related to government, ...

s of the British-owned railway company Buenos Aires Western Railway Co. that operated the

Once Once means a one-time occurrence. Once may refer to: Music * ''Once'' (Pearl Jam song), a 1991 song from the album ''Ten'' * ''Once'' (Roy Harper album), a 1990 album by Roy Harper * ''Once'' (The Tyde album), a 2001 debut album by The Tyd ...

Moreno Moreno may refer to: Places Argentina *Moreno (Buenos Aires Metro), a station on Line C of the Buenos Aires Metro *Moreno, Buenos Aires, a city in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina * Moreno Department, a depatnent of Santiago del Estero Province, ...

railway line from 1890 to 1946. In order to reach the

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". ...

the company opened a railway stop in 1923, just 10 meters from the club house. In the opening ceremony participated members of the

catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

and the railway stop was consecrated to

Saint Anthony of Padua Anthony of Padua ( it, Antonio di Padova) or Anthony of Lisbon ( pt, António/Antônio de Lisboa; born Fernando Martins de Bulhões; 15 August 1195 – 13 June 1231) was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. He was bo ...

. Through the next years the railway stop and the surrounding town were known as San Antonio de Padua. The town started in the 1930s with the first houses built around the railway station and the opening of the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

in 1931; San Antonio de Padua grew steadily over the decades and it bloomed in the 1950s. In the 1970s the commercial district of San Antonio de Padua —built around the main street ''Avenida Noguera'' and next to the railway station— became the most important commercial district in the entire partido of Merlo.

Sports

Club San Antonio de Padua (CASA de Padua), founded on December 12, 1926, is the city's sport club. In its facilities the locals can play a large range of sports such as

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

, and

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

. In 1995 the rugby team competed in the first division of the Buenos Aires Rugby Union (

URBA Orbe (; la, Urba; older german: Orbach, ; frp, Orba) is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud. It was the seat of the former district of Orbe and is now part of the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois. History Orbe is first mentioned about 2 ...

) championship.

Sport Clubs

Club Atlético San Antonio de Padua

CASA de Padua Rugby Club

Ituzaingó Golf Club

External links

Ricardo Güiraldes Public LibrarySan Antonio de Padua City Portal
{{DEFAULTSORT:San Antonio De Padua Merlo Partido Populated places in Buenos Aires Province Populated places established in 1923 Cities in Argentina