Inaugurated on 17 March 1940, Bariloche's Centro Civico was Argentina's first purpose-built civic centre. Designed by architect Ernesto de Estrada, it is built from local cypress and alerce wood and stone quarried from Cerro Carbon. The square is surrounded by the town hall, police station, a museum, and the Sarmiento Library, all in a rustic Alpine style that suits the mountain setting perfectly. A monument to Julio A. Roca stands in the centre. Watch for the clock tower at noon and 6pm, when four carved figures — representing an indigenous person, a missionary, a conquistador, and a labourer — emerge. The Centro Civico was declared a National Monument in 1987.
Centro Civico
Alpine-style civic square with animated clock tower
A story
After the Falklands War, the monument to General Julio Roca at the centre of the square became a focus for protests over the indigenous Wars of the Desert he led. The statue has been doused in red paint several times by Mapuche activists. The city has so far kept it in place.