Resistencia

Resistencia calls itself the city of sculptures, and the claim is literal: more than seven hundred works in bronze, stone, wood and metal stand along its streets, in plazas, outside shops and on traffic islands, placed there over decades by a cultural foundation that turned a hot, flat provincial capital into a permanent outdoor gallery. Every two years the Bienal Internacional de Escultura brings sculptors from around the world to carve in public over a week in a stadium-like arena, with the finished works added to the city's collection and the process watched by large crowds. The central Plaza 25 de Mayo is one of the largest squares in the country, and the Fogón de los Arrieros, an eccentric club and museum, was where the whole sculpture project began.

History

The land belonged to Guaycuru peoples who lived by hunting and fishing, among them the Abipón, and their resistance to missions delayed European settlement here long after the Spanish had travelled round the Chaco between 1541 and 1580 and founded Corrientes across the Paraná in 1588. A proper settlement was set up only in 1865, and Resistencia was formally created on 27 January 1878, when Arturo Seelstrang's survey was approved, its first settlers Friulian immigrants brought under the national immigration law. It became the capital of the new province of Chaco in 1953, the seat of a diocese in 1939 and of an archdiocese in 1984 (Wikipedia, Resistencia, Chaco).

Highlights

• The street sculptures - hundreds of works spread across pavements and plazas.
• The Bienal - the biennial international sculpture event, carved in public.
• El Fogón de los Arrieros - the club and museum that started the movement.
• Plaza 25 de Mayo - the vast central square with more works among the trees.

When to go

May to September, when the Chaco heat eases; summer here regularly passes forty degrees with high humidity. The Bienal falls in July of even years and is worth timing for. Evenings are when the city walks.

Practical notes

Resistencia is a hot, workaday capital and the sculptures are its main attraction; visitors uninterested in them will find little else. Quality varies widely across the collection. Summer heat makes daytime walking genuinely unpleasant.

Nearby

Corrientes is across the bridge; Chaco National Park lies northwest.

Key facts