La Plata
— — a city drawn with a ruler and a few diagonals.
Not only on a wall.
“A planned city laid out as a perfect square with diagonals cutting across the grid. La Plata was founded in 1882 to serve as the new capital of Buenos Aires Province, and most of it still reads the way the engineers drew it. The cathedral on Plaza Moreno is one of the largest neo-Gothic churches in the Americas. Students from the university fill the cafés on Calle 7.
La Plata, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
La Plata sits about sixty kilometres southeast of Buenos Aires on the southern bank of the Río de la Plata estuary. The city was founded on 19 November 1882 by provincial governor Dardo Rocha to serve as the new capital of Buenos Aires Province after the federal capital absorbed the old one. The plan, by architect Pedro Benoit, is a five-kilometre square gridded street network bisected by two long diagonals, with plazas placed at regular intervals. The metropolitan area today holds roughly 800,000 people.
Plaza Moreno holds the Catedral de La Plata, a neo-Gothic basilica begun in 1884 and not finally consecrated until 1999. Its spires reach 112 metres and the nave is among the largest of any cathedral in the Americas. The brick is local, the rose window glass German. Across the plaza, the Palacio Municipal answers in Flemish Renaissance brick, and the Casa de Gobierno closes the civic axis. The whole composition was drawn before the first foundation stone was set.
La Plata is reached from Buenos Aires by frequent commuter train from Constitución station in about ninety minutes, or by bus along Autopista La Plata–Buenos Aires. The cathedral is open daily and the tower lift runs most afternoons for a small fee. The Museo de La Plata, on the grounds of the Universidad Nacional, holds one of South America's most important natural-history collections, with paleontological specimens from Patagonia. Autumn (April through June) and spring (September through November) bring the most temperate weather.