La Plata

La Plata was founded in 1882 as the capital of Buenos Aires province, planned in advance by the engineer Pedro Benoit on a strict grid of square blocks crossed by diagonals, with a park or plaza every six blocks and a great civic axis running through the centre. The plan won prizes in Paris and is still legible on the ground. Its cathedral, begun in 1885 and finished with its spires only in 1999, is one of the largest neo-Gothic churches in the Americas, and a lift climbs a tower for views over the grid. The Museo de La Plata is the country's finest natural history museum, with its famous halls of South American fossil mammals and dinosaurs among Beaux-Arts galleries.

What you actually see

• The cathedral - the vast neo-Gothic church with a climbable tower.
• The Museo de La Plata - fossil mammals, dinosaurs and anthropology collections.
• The planned grid - the diagonals, plazas and civic axis of the 1882 design.
• The Bosque park - the wooded park holding the museum, zoo and observatory.

When to go

Year-round; spring and autumn are most comfortable, summer humid. Museums close on some Mondays, and the cathedral tower operates limited hours. Student life makes the city lively during term.

Honest expectations

The city is functional and worn in places, and its interest is architectural and museum-based rather than atmospheric. Distances between sights are longer than the map suggests because the blocks are large. Summer humidity is heavy.

Nearby

Buenos Aires lies northwest; the Río de la Plata coast is close to the east.