Ranelagh is a town in

Berazategui Partido Berazategui is a Partidos of Buenos Aires, partido in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. With an area of and a population of 320,224 (), it is at the southeast of the Greater Buenos Aires urban conglomerate, and its capital is Berazategui city. I ...

, in the southeastern section of

Greater Buenos Aires Greater Buenos Aires (, GBA), also known as the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (, AMBA), refers to the urban agglomeration comprising the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of B ...

History

Ranelagh was initially developed by the

Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway The Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway (BAGS) () was one of the ''Big Four'' Indian gauge, broad gauge, , British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina. The company was founded by Edward Lumb in 1862 and the f ...

, which opened a station at the site in 1911, and formed ''La Compañía de Tierras del Sud'' (Southlands Company) to oversee the

real estate development Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw Real Estate, land and the sale of developed land or parce ...

plan. The town's name was in homage to the

Viscount Ranelagh Viscount Ranelagh was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 25 August 1628 for Sir Roger Jones, son of Thomas Jones, Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He was made Baron Jones of Navan, in the County of Meath, ...

, an Irish nobleman who had

Ranelagh Gardens Ranelagh Gardens (; alternative spellings include Ranelegh and Ranleigh, the latter reflecting the English pronunciation) were public pleasure gardens located in Chelsea, then just outside London, England, in the 18th century. History The R ...

built in

Chelsea, England Chelsea is an area in West London, England, due south-west of Charing Cross by approximately . It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the south-western postal area. Chelsea historically formed a mano ...

in 1742. The first ten

chalet A chalet (pronounced in British English; in American English usually ), also called Swiss chalet, is a type of building or house, typical of the Alpine region in Europe. It is made of wood, with a heavy, gently sloping roof and wide, well-su ...

s (built in Tudor style) were completed in 1913, the post office in 1915, and the first school in 1916. The ''El Progreso''

country club A country club is a privately-owned Club (organization), club, often with a membership quota and admittance by invitation or sponsorship, that generally offers both a variety of recreational sports and facilities for dining and entertaining. Ty ...

was established in 1924. It would be reestablished as the Ranelagh Golf Club in 1943, and became among the most important in the southern Buenos Aires metro area; the

course Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...

was later named in honor of 7-time

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

champion

Roberto de Vicenzo Roberto De Vicenzo (14 April 1923 – 1 June 2017) was a professional golfer from Argentina. He won a record 229 professional tournaments worldwide during his career, including seven on the PGA Tour and most famously the 1967 Open Championship. ...

, a longtime member. The

Mercedarian Order The Royal, Celestial and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy and the Redemption of the Captives (, abbreviated O. de M.), also known as the Mercedarians, is a Catholic mendicant order established in 1218 by Peter Nolasco in the city of Barcelo ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

established a chapel in the town in 1938, and the ''Nuestra Señora de la Merced'' (Our Lady of Mercy) Temple was consecrated in 1939. The regional

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

recognized the Parish of Ranelagh in 1941. Nieve Ranelagh

A Jitney service was established between Ranelagh and the county seat,

Berazategui Berazategui is a city in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, located to the south-east of Quilmes. It is the head town of the Berazategui Partido Berazategui is a Partidos of Buenos Aires, partido in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. With an ar ...

, in 1944. Ranelagh was the site of the clandestine press organized by the prominent

Socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

daily, ''

La Vanguardia ' (; , ) is a Spanish daily newspaper founded in 1881. It is printed in Spanish and, since 3 May 2011, also in Catalan. It has its headquarters in Barcelona and is Catalonia's leading newspaper. Despite being mostly distributed in Catalonia, ...

'', following its closure in 1947. The town's first manufacturing firm (

corrugated cardboard Corrugated fiberboard, corrugated cardboard, or corrugated is a type of packaging material consisting of a fluted corrugated sheet and one or two flat linerboards. It is made on "flute lamination machines" or "corrugators" and is used for maki ...

maker Zucamor) was established in 1953, and would, despite a 1957 fire, grow to become an important provider of boxes for the

Argentine wine Argentina is the fifth largest producer of wine in the world.H. Johnson & J. Robinson: ''The World Atlas of Wine'', pp. 300-301, Mitchell Beazley Publishing 2005 . Argentine wine, as with some aspects of Cuisine of Argentina, Argentine cuisine, h ...

industry.

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

established a bottling plant in Ranelagh in 1958. Ranelagh was recognized as a Town by the Provincial Legislature in 1967. An extensive lot surrounding the railway station was converted into an

arboretum An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...

on the initiative of Eva Hajduk, and following her death in 1984, the park was renamed in her honor. The 13,400 m² (144,000 ft²) Berazategui Regional Hospital was built in Ranelagh, and inaugurated in 1994. The town's principal news daily, ''La Misión'', was established by Julio Ortega in 1994.

References

External links

*
El Portal de Ranelagh

Municipalidad de Berazategui
{{Greater Buenos Aires Berazategui Partido Populated places in Buenos Aires Province Populated places established in 1911