Rosario

Rosario is a city in Santa Fe province in central Argentina, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Manuel Belgrano first raised the flag of Argentina on the river bank there in 1812, and the city calls itself the cradle of the flag. The footballer Lionel Messi was born in the city.

The town grew in the 18th century around a chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary, after which it is named. It received the title of city in 1852 and became the port for the wheat, corn and cattle of the Pampas. Railways to Córdoba and Buenos Aires ran to its quays, and Italian and Spanish immigrants settled in its new districts. In the 20th century its port, its mills and its grain exchange made Rosario a center of the farm trade of Argentina.

Soybean meal and oil, wheat and corn leave Rosario and the river ports north and south of it for markets in Asia and Europe. The port terminals along the Paraná load ocean ships with grain brought by truck and train from the Pampas.

The National Flag Memorial, a monument of white stone by the river, has a tall tower, a crypt for Belgrano and a long walkway to the water. Parque de la Independencia, laid out in the early 20th century, has a lake, a rose garden and museums. Rosario Central and Newell's Old Boys, the two football clubs of the city, meet in the Rosario derby, the clásico rosarino. Bar El Cairo, a café in the center, was the meeting place of the cartoonist and writer Roberto Fontanarrosa. The islands of the Paraná, opposite the city, have beaches reached by boat in summer.