Plaza Santiago Montenegro is a small hardscape

Hardscape

Hardscape, in the practice of landscaping, refers to the paved areas like streets & sidewalks, large business complexes & housing developments, and other industrial areas where the upper soil profile is no longer exposed to the actual surface of the Earth...

 plaza

Plaza

Plaza is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban public space, such as a city square. All through Spanish America, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cabildo or administrative center, which might be...

 in the city of Rosario

Rosario

Rosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River and has 1,159,004 residents as of the ....

, province

Provinces of Argentina

Argentina is subdivided into twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city...

 of Santa Fe

Santa Fe Province

The Invincible Province of Santa Fe, in Spanish Provincia Invencible de Santa Fe , is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco , Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. Its name honors one of the first Spanish-descended settlers in the area, Captain Santiago Montenegro. It was known as Plaza Pinasco until 1993.

The plaza occupies part of a block in the downtown area, limited by San Luis St., a pedestrian segment of San Martín St.

San Martín Street (Rosario)

San Martín Street is an important street in Rosario, Santa Fe Province, Argentina. It runs north–south through the center of the city, from the coastal avenue by the Paraná River to the southern limit of the urbanized area...

, and a smaller street or passage called Barón de Mauá. Most of the block is taken up by the Bernardino Rivadavia Culture Center.

History

The site of the plaza was a marketplace between 1857 and 1903. A better organized fruit and vegetable market replaced it around 1905, which lasted there until 1962, when mayor Cándido Carballo ordered its removal for sanitary reasons, in 1962. The buildings were demolished, leaving an empty lot. The Automóvil Club Argentino

Automovil Club Argentino

The ACA is Argentina's largest automobile association.It was founded on June 11, 1904, by Dalmiro Varela Castex, who in 1892 had imported the country's first registered automobile, a Daimler, and in 1894 its second...

 struck an agreement with the Municipality to build a car park underground, while the ground area was turned into a hardscape public space called Plaza Emidgio Pinasco.

When Argentina hosted the 1978 FIFA World Cup

1978 FIFA World Cup

The 1978 FIFA World Cup, the 11th staging of the FIFA World Cup, was held in Argentina between 1 June and 25 June. The 1978 World Cup was won by Argentina who beat the Netherlands 3–1 after extra time in the final. This win was the first World Cup title for Argentina, who became the fifth...

, Rosario was chosen as a sub-seat, and the state organization in charge of FIFA's requirements appropriated a sector of the plaza to build a press center. The building was first planned as a provisional one, but then the organization decided to make it permanent, and donate it to the Municipality to function as a culture center.
The plaza was rebuilt in 1993, during the administration of mayor Héctor Cavallero

Héctor Cavallero

Héctor Cavallero , nicknamed El Tigre, "The Tiger", is an Argentine politician, who was mayor of Rosario and a member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies for the province of Santa Fe ....

. Since then, it was often occupied by a sort of flea market

Flea market

A flea market or swap meet is a type of bazaar where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold or bartered. It may be indoors, such as in a warehouse or school gymnasium; or it may be outdoors, such as in a field or under a tent...

, with artisans selling small merchandise and makeshift kiosks offering used textbooks. In 2005, reacting to complaints about the state of the plaza, and following a consistent policy of ordering the physical distribution of street fairs in the city, the municipal government surveyed the sellers and selected a number of them to work with permits in the plaza.