Tolhuin is a town in the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South America, South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main is ...

, Argentina. It has 9,879 inhabitants as per the 2022 census. It is located on the eastern shore of Lake Fagnano, in the southern part of the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. It is the third largest settlement on the Argentine side of Tierra del Fuego after

Ushuaia Ushuaia ( , ) is the capital city, capital of Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province, Argentina. With a population of 82,615 and a location below the 54th parallel south latitude, U ...

and Río Grande. Tolhuin was founded on October 9, 1972. The word means "''like a heart''" in Selkʼnam language. It lies on National Route 3, and is the only town between the cities of Ushuaia (about 103

kilometre The kilometre (SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American English, American and Philippine English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is the ...

s to the south) and Río Grande (about 133 kilometres to the north) on this

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

Attractions

There is a bakery called Panadería La Unión located near the town that has become famous in the region. Most buses going to

stop here so their passengers can have a coffee, and eat

baked goods Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but it can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot Baking stone, stones. Bread is the most commonly baked item, but many other types of food can also be baked. Heat is ...

. The bakery's walls are lined with autographed photographs of Argentine celebrities who have visited the town over the decades.

''Top Gear'' incident

In 2014, Tolhuin was the site of an attack on the film crew of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

TV program '' Top Gear''. The crew was confronted by what the presenters called "a mob", who blocked off the road access and began to pelt their cars with stones in a protest over the license plate (H982 FKL) on programme presenter

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English television presenter, journalist, farmer, and author who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for hosting the television programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), T ...

Porsche 928 The Porsche 928 is a front-engine, water-cooled grand touring car, grand touring 2+2 (car body style), 2+2 hatchback coupe manufactured and marketed by Porsche AG of Germany from 1977 to 1995 — across a single generation with an intermedia ...

that politicians and army veterans suggested could be seen to refer to the

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

. Following the attack, the crew abandoned the damaged vehicles at a police checkpoint and left the country.

Climate

Tolhuin has a

tundra climate The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. It is classified as ET according to the Köppen climate classification. It is a climate which at least one month has an average temperature high enough ...

( ET) that borders closely on a

subpolar oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring co ...

(Cfc) and subantarctic continental climate (Dfc).

References

*
WelcomeArgentina
Populated places in Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina Cities and towns in Tierra del Fuego Populated places established in 1972 Populated lakeshore places in Argentina Cities in Argentina {{TierradelFuegoAR-geo-stub