Neuquén
— — the dry steppe where the rivers come together.
Not only on a wall.
“Capital of Neuquén Province, set on the confluence of the Limay and Neuquén rivers in northern Patagonia. The steppe runs flat to the Andes in the west and to dinosaur country in the north. The city is young, founded in 1904, and works as the gateway to the wine country of the Alto Valle and the fossil beds where Argentinosaurus was lifted from the ground in 1987.
Neuquén, 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.
Neuquén is the capital of Neuquén Province in Argentine Patagonia, sitting at the confluence of the Limay and Neuquén rivers where they form the Río Negro. The city was founded on 12 September 1904 and now holds roughly 230,000 residents, with around 340,000 across the wider metropolitan area. The surrounding Alto Valle is one of Argentina's main fruit-growing regions, producing pears and apples for export. Route 22 runs east toward Buenos Aires, about 1,150 kilometres away; the Andes lie 400 kilometres west.
The province sits on one of the richest dinosaur-fossil basins in the world. Argentinosaurus huinculensis, one of the largest land animals ever recorded, was unearthed at Plaza Huincul about 100 kilometres west in 1987. The Carmen Funes Municipal Museum holds the reconstructed skeleton. The Alto Valle wine country, centred on San Patricio del Chañar to the north, runs its main harvest from late February through April, with malbec and pinot noir leading the planting list and a growing run of sparkling wine.
The Patagonian steppe runs east from the Andes in a flat sweep of low scrub and dry grass, with the prevailing westerly wind crossing the cordillera and falling on Neuquén dry and steady. Annual rainfall sits near 160 millimetres, among the lower readings in the country. Summers reach into the high thirties Celsius; winters stay mild but windy. The two rivers carry meltwater from the Andean lake district, and the green strip along their banks is sharp against the dun of the steppe.