Gualeguay

Gualeguay became a planned colonial town in 1783, when Tomás de Rocamora gathered inhabitants into the settlement called San Antonio del Gualeguay Grande. Viceroy Vértiz had sent him to address disputes in the parish and organize settlement in Entre Ríos. Choosing a site required balancing access to the river with protection from flooding, rather than simply accepting the location favored for a relocated chapel.

Work on clearing and laying out the central plaza began in January 1783. A grid of streets extended around it, with plots reserved for the church, council, commandant's headquarters, barracks and prison. Householders received building plots as the new municipal institutions were established. This arrangement brought people previously scattered around a chapel into a town with an identifiable civic center. Gualeguay's foundation thus combined the regulation of an existing rural population with a physical plan intended to connect river access, public authority and residential settlement.