Río Cuarto
Argentina · Americas
About Río Cuarto
Río Cuarto is a city in the province of Córdoba, Argentina. Located in the south of the province, it has about 157,000 inhabitants and is an important commercial and agricultural hub.
The Río Cuarto River flows through the province of Córdoba; its central location in the Humid Pampas favored the city's development as a transport hub for much of the surrounding agriculture, and several slaughterhouses and food processing plants opened in Río Cuarto during the twentieth century.
Río Cuarto was founded on November 11, 1786, as Villa de la Concepción del Río Cuarto, by the colonial Governor Rafael de Sobremonte. Its first rail connection was by way of the former Andean Railway in 1870, after which the village grew rapidly with the influx of Italian and Spanish immigrants (mainly as tenant farmers). The municipal government charter establishing the modern system of elected mayors and city council was enacted in 1883; the city's first elected mayor was Moysés Irusta.
Father Antonio Cardarelli commissioned the construction of the city's principal Roman Catholic church, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, built between 1883 and 1886.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.