Neuquén

About Neuquén

Neuquén is the capital city of the Argentine province of Neuquén and of the Confluencia Department within that province, located in the extreme east of the province. It occupies a strip of land west of the confluence of the Limay and Neuquén rivers which form the Río Negro, making it part of the ecoregion of Alto Valle del Río Negro. The city had 287,787 inhabitants, and the surrounding Neuquén – Plottier – Cipolletti conurbation had a population of more than 500,000 at the 2022 Census, making it the largest urban agglomeration in Patagonia.

Founded in 1904, it is the newest provincial capital city in Argentina.

The name of the city comes from the Neuquén River, which in Mapuche language means 'water that has strength'. This name was already used since 1884 for the federal territory. Since 1902, it was used for the railway station of the town, which at that time was a hamlet called Confluencia. The name of the town was officially chosen in 1904, when it was declared the capital of the territory. It is the only Argentine city that has a palindrome name, that is a word which reads the same backward as forward....

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.