page_title: Gualeguaychú, Entre Ríos
section_title: Past and Foundation
hierarchical_section_title: Gualeguaychú, Entre Ríos / Past and Foundation
context_page_description: Gualeguaychú is a city in the province of Entre Ríos, Argentina, on the left bank of the Gualeguaychú River. It is located on the south-east of the province, approximately 230 km north-west of Buenos Aires. It has a population of 109,266 according to the 2010 Census.
  The city is located near national route 14, a route growing in importance because it connects Argentina's capital Buenos Aires and São Paulo in Brazil, the biggest city of South America, being one of the most important routes in Mercosur.
  The city hosts an annual carnival that is regionally well-known and attended by people from many other provinces and countries around the world. It is considered one of the largest carnivals in the world. Gualeguaychú also has hot springs, beach resorts, and a casino.
  Near Gualeguaychú is Pueblo Belgrano, a municipality that belongs to the city, which is well known for its hot springs. Gualeguaychú should not be confused with Gualeguay, another city also in Entre Ríos, located about 80 km west.
context_section_description: The land has been inhabited since pre-Hispanic times by Chaná, Charrúa. From the 17th century, Spanish representatives from Santa Fe and Buenos Aires gave possession of these lands to settlers who founded precarious rural settlements in constant dispute with the native tribes. These conflicts resulted in series of campaigns and extermination and enslavement of the natives, who had been decimated by the mid-eighteenth century. In the final decades of the century, the number of people scattered throughout the area from Buenos Aires and Santa Fe, including Jesuit missionaries, increased. These inhabitants developed a subsistence economy and had conflicts with landowner settlers, who had already been settled there for decades.
  In 1770, a settlement was established around a chapel in the south of Gualeguaychú.
  In December 1777 the rancher Esteban Justo García de Zúñiga was appointed as the “commander of the parties of Gualeguaychú, Gualeguay and Uruguay".
  In 1779 the bishop of Buenos Aires, Sebastián Malvar y Pinto, visited the zone.  When he saw the precarious situation of the smallholders in comparison to the ranchers and Portuguese incursions, he decided to inform the viceroy about this. In 1782, Viceroy Juan José de Vértiz y Salcedo commissioned a sergeant major from Dragones de Almanza, Tomás de Rocamora, to organize the villagers scattered in villages in the region to reinforce the Spanish presence in the area before the Portuguese incursions from the Banda Oriental.
  Gualeguaychú was founded on October 18, 1783 by sergeant Tomas de Rocamora under Viceroy Vértiz. When he arrived at the town Rocamora noticed that the place where the first settlement had been established was low and prone to flooding, so he decided to move it to the north, in front of Libertad Island.
  According to the Indian’s laws, Rocamora cleared the land, took the measurement, assigned the public places, distributed 85 pieces of land, chose the members of the Primer Cabildo (the first town council) and appointed San José as the patron saint. Therefore, the town was called San José de Gualeguaychú.
caption: Foundation Plan of Gualeguaychú
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