Colón is a city in the . It is located in the east of the province, on the western shore of the
Uruguay RiverThe Uruguay River is a river in South America. It flows from north to south and makes boundary with Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of the Mesopotamia from the other two countries...
, and has about 21,000 inhabitants . It lies opposite
PaysandúPaysandú is the second largest city in Uruguay, with a population of 97,000. It is the capital of the department of Paysandú.The city is located at coordinates , by road north-west of Montevideo, on the Uruguay River, which forms the border with Argentina...
,
UruguayUruguay , is a country located in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to 3.46 million people, of whom 1.1 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area. An estimated 88–94% of the population are of mostly European and/or mixed descent.Uruguay's only land border is...
, to which it is linked across the river by the
General Artigas BridgeThe General Artigas Bridge is a road bridge that crosses the Uruguay River and joins Argentina and Uruguay. It runs between Colón, Entre Ríos Province, Argentina, and Paysandú, Paysandú Department, Uruguay. It is a cantilever bridge with a total length of 2,350 meters...
.
The city was founded in 1863 by General
Justo José de UrquizaJusto José de Urquiza y García was an Argentine general and politician. He was president of the Argentine Confederation from 1854 to 1860....
, former
caudilloCaudillo is a Spanish word usually describing a political-military leader at the head of an authoritarian power. It is usually translated into English as "leader" or "chief," or more pejoratively as warlord, "dictator" or "strongman". Caudillo was the term used to refer the charismatic populist...
of Entre Ríos and then the first
constitutionalThe constitution of Argentina is one of the primary sources of existing law in Argentina. Its first version was written in 1853 by a Constitutional Assembly gathered in Santa Fe, and the doctrinal basis was taken in part from the United States Constitution...
President of ArgentinaThe President of Argentina is the head of state of Argentina...
.
Colón is the center of an important
touristicTourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other...
region. Though it is a relatively small city, it features high-quality
hotelA hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
s, a
casinoA casino is a facility that houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships and other tourist attractions...
, and camping sites.
Colón is a city in the . It is located in the east of the province, on the western shore of the
Uruguay RiverThe Uruguay River is a river in South America. It flows from north to south and makes boundary with Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of the Mesopotamia from the other two countries...
, and has about 21,000 inhabitants . It lies opposite
PaysandúPaysandú is the second largest city in Uruguay, with a population of 97,000. It is the capital of the department of Paysandú.The city is located at coordinates , by road north-west of Montevideo, on the Uruguay River, which forms the border with Argentina...
,
UruguayUruguay , is a country located in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to 3.46 million people, of whom 1.1 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area. An estimated 88–94% of the population are of mostly European and/or mixed descent.Uruguay's only land border is...
, to which it is linked across the river by the
General Artigas BridgeThe General Artigas Bridge is a road bridge that crosses the Uruguay River and joins Argentina and Uruguay. It runs between Colón, Entre Ríos Province, Argentina, and Paysandú, Paysandú Department, Uruguay. It is a cantilever bridge with a total length of 2,350 meters...
.
The city was founded in 1863 by General
Justo José de UrquizaJusto José de Urquiza y García was an Argentine general and politician. He was president of the Argentine Confederation from 1854 to 1860....
, former
caudilloCaudillo is a Spanish word usually describing a political-military leader at the head of an authoritarian power. It is usually translated into English as "leader" or "chief," or more pejoratively as warlord, "dictator" or "strongman". Caudillo was the term used to refer the charismatic populist...
of Entre Ríos and then the first
constitutionalThe constitution of Argentina is one of the primary sources of existing law in Argentina. Its first version was written in 1853 by a Constitutional Assembly gathered in Santa Fe, and the doctrinal basis was taken in part from the United States Constitution...
President of ArgentinaThe President of Argentina is the head of state of Argentina...
.
Colón is the center of an important
touristicTourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other...
region. Though it is a relatively small city, it features high-quality
hotelA hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
s, a
casinoA casino is a facility that houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships and other tourist attractions...
, and camping sites. It also has
hot springA hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. There are hot springs all over the earth, on every continent and even under the oceans and seas.-Definitions:...
s and associated facilities. The neighboring towns allow for small-scale historical sightseeing, since they were mostly created as
agricultural coloniesAgricultural colonies in Argentina were a demographically and economically important part of the evolution of the country. The Argentine government, faced with large areas of fertile land that were unpopulated or settled by aboriginal tribes , encouraged European immigration, welcoming settling...
by
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an immigrants (especially from
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
).
In the Colón area (about 60 km from the city) lies the
El Palmar National ParkEl Palmar National Park is one of Argentina's national parks, located on the center-west of the province of Entre Ríos, mid-way between the cities of Colón and Concordia...
, a large reserve of Yatay palm trees (
Syagrus yataySyagrus is a genus of 30 to 42 species of Arecaceae , native to South America, with one species endemic to the Lesser Antilles. The genus is closely related to the Cocos, or coconut genus, and many Syagrus species produce edible seeds similar to the coconut.-Description:Palms in this group have...
), informally known as
Palmar de Colón. The
Palacio San JoséThe San José Palace is the former personal residence of Justo José de Urquiza, Argentine caudillo, general, politician and President of the Argentine Confederation from 1854 to 1860...
, former country residence of General Urquiza and now a national monument, is also near Colón, closer to the city of
Concepción del UruguayConcepción del Uruguay is a city in Argentina.It is located in the Entre Ríos province, on the western shore of the Uruguay River, some 320 kilometers north from Buenos Aires. Its population is about 65,000 inhabitants .-History:...
.