Manuel B. Gonnet is a city in La Plata Partido, Argentina. It is part of a group of neighborhoods developed around the then Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway (later Ferrocarril General Roca) connecting

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the , it has a population of 654,324 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 787,294 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from th ...

with Buenos Aires, and Tolosa, Ringuelet,

City Bell City Bell is a town located in La Plata Partido, Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is located some 10 kilometers from the city center. It forms part of the Greater La Plata urban agglomeration. The earliest settlement in City Bell was founded around 1 ...

and Villa Elisa. It is named after

Manuel Bernardo Gonnet Manuel may refer to: People * Manuel (name) * Manuel (Fawlty Towers), a fictional character from the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'' * Charlie Manuel Charles Fuqua Manuel Jr. (born January 4, 1944), is an American former professional baseball playe ...

, first provincial minister of Public Works (after the Federalization of Buenos Aires) and provincial legislator. According to the 2001 Census INDEC, Manuel B. Gonnet has a population of 22,963 in .

History

On 13 July 1882 the provincial government started construction of new railroad branches to connect the new provincial capital with the Buenos Aires Western Railway and the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway. The La Plata - Empalme Pereyra (Villa Elisa) line was opened on 1 January 1889. In 1889 at the inauguration of the

Adolfo Alsina Adolfo Alsina Maza (January 4, 1829 – December 29, 1877) was an Argentine lawyer and Unitarian politician, who was one of the founders of the Autonomist Party and the National Autonomist Party.Ione S. Wright and Lisa M. Nekhom, ''Histori ...

train station, the local landowners decided to start a partnership, subdivide part of the land into lots and found a town. The train station opened on 15 February and on 24 February they announced the establishment of Villa Máximo Paz, named after the then governor. However, the enterprise did not immediately succeed and it took many years to attain a stable population. Initially, the first houses were used as weekend retreats for the rich people of La Plata. When the population started to become established in 1909,

Luis Castells 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 archai ...

, owner of the land on the north side of the railway decided to fraction and sell his land and started the town of Villa Castells. In 1931 the city was renamed as Manuel B. Gonnet, joining Villa Máximo Paz and Villa Castells. In this area, a theme park, the

Republic of the Children The Children's Republic ( es, República de los Niños), is a theme park located in the city of Manuel B. Gonnet in La Plata, Argentina. With a surface of , and 35 scale buildings, it is regarded as the first theme park in Latin America. The Repu ...

, of around was built in 1951 inspired by the tales and characters of the Brothers Grimm.

Sports

The area is also known for its sports fields and clubs, such as Club Universitario de La Plata,

Rugby Club La Plata 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 ...

and

Santa Bárbara Hockey Club Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnigh ...

. It is also the site of the science campus of the Buenos Aires Province, Science Investigation Commission, the Acoustics and Light Technology Lab, the Center for Optical Research - CIOP, and LINTA.LINTA - Laboratorio de investigaciones del territorio y el ambiente
/ref> The is delimited by

Camino Centenario Camino may refer to: Places * Camino, California, United States, a census-designated place * Camino, Piedmont, Italy, a town *Camino, Veneto, Italy, a town People *Jaime Camino (1936–2015), Spanish film director and screenwriter *Renae Camin ...

and 505th street, 508th street and 16th street.

References

External links

Official site for Children's Republic
*{{in lang, es}
Official site for La Plata
Populated places in Buenos Aires Province 1882 establishments in Argentina La Plata Partido Populated places established in 1882