Mar del Plata is a city of the Atlantic Coast, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" is short for "Mar del Río de la Plata," and means "sea of the Río de la Plata basin" or "adjoining sea to the (River) Plate region."Creemos, sin embargo, que por ser el primer contacto que los hombres del Río de la Plata tomaron con el mar se llamó a este punto precisamente mar "del Plata". Cova, Roberto Osvaldo (1968) Síntesis histórica de Mar del Plata: notas para el conocimiento del origen, evolución y desarrollo de la ciudad y de la zona. Municipalidad de General Pueyrredón, p. 8 Mar del Plata is one of the major fishing ports and the biggest seaside beach resort in Argentina. With a population of 682,605 as per the , it is the 5th largest city in Argentina.

History

Pre-Spanish era: The region was inhabited by Günuna Kena nomads (also known as northern Tehuelche). After the 11th century they were strongly influenced by the Mapuche culture.

1577–1857: First European explorers. Sir Francis Drake made a reconnaissance of the coast and its sea lion colonies; Don Juan de Garay explored the area by land a few years later, in 1581. The Tehuelche were largely untouched by Spanish colonization because they were distant from major areas of settlement.

In 1742, during the War of Jenkins' Ear, eight survivors of , part of Admiral Anson expedition and led by midshipman Isaac Morris, lived through a ten-month ordeal before being captured by the Tehuelche. The indigenous people eventually passed the captives on to the Spaniards. After holding the Englishmen as prisoners, the Spanish returned Morris and his surviving companions to London in 1746. The first colonization attempt in 1751 by the Jesuit Order near Laguna de los Padres ended in disaster.

1857–1874: The Portuguese entrepreneur José Coelho de Meirelles, taking advantage of the country's abundance of wild cattle, built a pier and a factory to produce and export salted meat near Cabo Corrientes, but the business lasted only a few years.

1874–1886: Patricio Peralta Ramos acquired the now abandoned factory along with the surrounding terrain, and founded the town on February 10, 1874. Basque rancher Pedro Luro bought a part of Peralta Ramos land for agricultural production. First docks also erected around this time.

1886–1911: The railway line from Buenos Aires, built by the Buenos Aires Great Southern reached Mar del Plata in 1886; the first hotels were founded around the station stop. Upper-class people from Buenos Aires traveled by train to become the first tourists of the developing seaside village. They also established a local government that reflected their conservative ideals. Gradually a French style resort was built.

On 19 July 1907, the provincial legislature approved a bill that declared Mar del Plata as a city.

1911–1930: The residents, mostly newly arrived emigrants from Europe, demanded and obtained control of the Municipality administration. In this period socialists were the mainstream political force; they carried out social reforms and public investment. The main port was built and inaugurated in 1916.

1930–1946: A military coup reinstated the Conservative hegemony in national politics through electoral fraud and corruption. At the local levels officials were quite progressive; their policies viewed as a continuity of the socialist trend. In 1932, the construction of National Route 2 was completed, which connected Mar del Plata to Buenos Aires. Before this, a dirt road connected Mar del Plata to Buenos Aires via a different route, which required almost two days to travel by car.El camino a Mar del Plata, Dirección Nacional de Vialidad, 1934 The seaside Casino complex opened in 1939, designed by architect Alejandro Bustillo, dates from this period.

1946–1955: Birth of the Peronist movement.

A coalition between socialists and radicals defeated this new party by a narrow margin in Mar del Plata, but by 1948 Peronism came to dominate the local administration. Massive tourism, triggered by the welfare politics of Perón and the surge of the middle class, contributed to marked growth in the city's economy.

1955–1970: After the fall of Perón, during which the city was the subject of a naval bombardment, the socialists regained the upper hand in local politics. The city reached a peak in activities like the construction business and building industry. The jobs attracted numerous emigrants from other regions of Argentina.

1970–1989: A slight decline in tourism was counterbalanced by the increase of other industries such as fishing and machinery. There was general infrastructure renewal under the military rule. The centrist Radical Civic Union became the main political force after the return of Democracy in 1983.

1989–2010: Though Peronism replaced the radicals in central government amid a national financial crisis, the latter party continued to rule in Mar del Plata. Some resurgence of mass tourism in the early '90s was followed by a deep social crisis in town, with an increase of poverty, jobless rates and emigration. By contrast, the first decade of the 21st century showed quick recovery in all sectors of the ailing economy.

In November 2005 the city hosted the 4th Summit of the Americas.

Economy

As part of the Argentine recreational coast, tourism is Mar del Plata's main economic activity, with over eight million tourists visiting the city in annually. Mar del Plata has a sophisticated tourist infrastructure with numerous hotels, restaurants, casinos, theatres and other tourist attractions. Mar del Plata is also an important sports centre with a multi-purpose Olympic style stadium (first used for the 1978 World Cup and later upgraded for the 1995 Pan American Games), five golf courses and many other facilities.

As an important fishing port, industry concentrates on fish processing and at least two large shipyards.

The area is also host to other light industry, such as textile, food manufacturing and polymers. There is a well-developed packaging machines industry, its quality being recognized in international markets. One of these companies was one of the pioneers in the automatic packaging of tea bags, exporting its original machine-designs abroad. Another company also exports its products and has sold royalties to other countries.

During the mid-1980s, Mar del Plata saw the birth of electronics factories, focused mostly on the telecommunications field, with two of them, Nexuscom and DelSat, succeeding in the international market. By the 2010s, a local technology company, PCBOX, was manufacturing and developing personal computers, tablet computers, smartphones and action-cams.

Also during the decade of 2010, the development of the software industry resulted in the formation of 92 companies and 440 microbusinesses. One of these companies, Making Sense, opened offices at San Antonio, Austin and Boston, in the United States. Along with the American COPsync, Inc, the company developed in 2013 the software for VidTac, an in-car video system for law enforcement, and the internet landing page application Lander, bought by the Silicon Valley company QuestionPro in 2016.

Since the 2000s, a local company builds and develops oil industry equipment, with customers in the United States, Russia, Oman and Egypt.Hacemos Ingeniería de Primera Línea La Capital, 9 May 2011 QM Equipment

Located southwest of the city are quartzite quarries. The stone is traditionally used in construction. The large acreage of farms in the rural areas surrounding the city specialize mostly in the cultivation of vegetables.

In 2012, Mar del Plata became a wine-producing area, when a wine company from Mendoza province produced 20,000 barrels <--?--> from a vineyard at Chapadmalal beach. It processed such f grape varieties as Sauvignon blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling and Gewürztraminer. Since then, the local winery has turned into a tourist attraction. Microbeweries also flourished during the 2010s, amounting by 2016 to one-third of the national production.

Although the area had suffered from a high rate of unemployment from 1995 to 2003, Mar del Plata had 46,000 new jobs created from the third quarter of 2003 to the third quarter of 2008, representing an increase of 22%.INDEC

The 2008 Davis Cup Final was held in Mar del Plata. After being shut for a decade, the Gran Hotel Provincial (one of the largest hotels in Argentina) was renovated and reopened in 2009 by the Madrid-based NH Hotels.

Mar del Plata continues to lead Argentina's room availability: of 440,000 registered hotel rooms nationwide. In early 2009, the city was home to nearly 56,000 (5,000 more rooms than in Buenos Aires city).

Transportation

Mar del Plata is served by Astor Piazzolla International Airport (MDQ/SAZM) with daily flights to Buenos Aires served by Aerolíneas Argentinas and weekly flights to Patagonia served by LADE.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, flights were reduced just to two daily flights to Buenos Aires served by Aerolineas Argentinas.

Highway 2 connects Mar del Plata with Buenos Aires and Route 11 connects it through the coastline, ending at Miramar, south of Mar del Plata. Route 88 connects to Necochea and Route 226 to Balcarce, Tandil and Olavarría.

The city has a bus and train station serving most cities in Argentina. There are two daily trains to Buenos Aires' Constitución station using new trains operated by Trenes Argentinos."Realizará su primer viaje el tren chino que unirá Buenos Aires con Mar del Plata", Minuto Uno, 21 Nov 2014Comenzó a operar el tren Buenos Aires - Mar del Plata - Transporte Publico, 29 December 2–14. These services are part of the General Roca Railway, owned by the government company Nuevos Ferrocarriles Argentinos.

Railway stations in Mar del Plata Station Builder Operating Status Operator/s Mar del Plata Norte BA Great Southern 1886-2011 Closed (1) BA Great Southern (1896-1948) Ferrocarriles Argentinos (1948-1993) Ferrobaires (1993-2011) Mar del Plata Sur BA Great Southern 1910-1949 Closed (2) BA Great Southern (1910-1948) Ferrocarriles Argentinos (1948-1949) Railway & Bus Trenes Argentinos 2011–present Active Trenes Argentinos (2011–present)

Notes (1) Its tracks were extended to connect with the bus terminal opened in 2009, also building new train platforms. (2) Operated as the bus terminal of the city until 2009.

Culture

Mar del Plata is the most popular destination for conventions in Argentina after Buenos Aires. Mar del Plata has a wide range of services in this sector. The summer season hosts over fifty theatrical plays.

Interreligious Circuit The city has, for those who do religious tourism, an interesting interreligious circuit that includes a visit among Catholics, in addition to the Cathedral, the Schoenstatt Sanctuary, the “Christ” of the South Jetty, a replica of the Lourdes Grotto, the Chapels of Stella Maris and Santa Cecilia, of other cults is the Russian Orthodox Church of Mar del Plata, represented by the Church of the Royal Saints and Martyrs; it is consecrated to Czar Nicholas II and his family, killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. The Muslim community opens the doors of the Sunni Mosque of the Muslim community. For its part, the Jewish community offers visits to the Gabriel Temple.Circuito de Turismo Religioso en Mar del Plata

Shows and festivals

The Mar del Plata International Film Festival, the only A-class accredited film festival in Latin America. The Fiesta Nacional del Mar ("National Sea Festival") with the election and coronation of the Sea Queen and her princesses, which takes place in December as the official inauguration of the summer season. The Premios Estrella de Mar ("Sea Star Awards") which honor the best stage plays and shows of the season.