Dancing with a tourist in Plaza Dorrego
| "Dorrego" square (in Spanish: Plaza Dorrego) is a square located in the heart of San Telmo, in the south of Buenos Aires. In the 19th century, San Telmo was the main residential "barrio" (neighbourhood) of the city, and Plaza Dorrego was its focal point.
In the past, it was referred to as "Hueco del Alto" or "Alto de la carretas" as it was the place where oxcarts should stop before crossing the stream "Tercero del Sur" (today called "Pasaje San Lorenzo") on their way downtown. The name had been "Alto de San Pedro" and later changed to "Plaza del Comercio" in 1822. In 1905, the name was changed once again to its current form.
The buildings located in the square maintain its original design thanks to the help of the "Comisión del Museo de la Ciudad".
Currently, its surroundings are full of coffee shops, bars and pubs, which fill the square with tables from those shops. There are also several antique stores. Musicians and dancers, particularly tango exhibitions, are here performed. The "Feria de San Telmo" (San Telmo Fair), mainly of antiques, runs every Sunday.
Plaza Dorrego is located at the intersection of "Humberto I" and "Defensa" streets. Along with La Boca, Recoleta, Florida, and others, Plaza Dorrego is one of the main tourist attractions of Buenos Aires.
In the first centuries of life of Buenos Aires, they existed places (called "solares") left between the scarce constructions of the city. Also denominated “huecos" (hollows), they were generally used as markets, parking of carts or "vaciaderos" (garbage deposits). Many of them were becoming, with time, the main places of the city. After the "Plaza Mayor" (Mayor Sqare), which the first hollow was part of the present "Plaza de Mayo", the today called "Plaza Dorrego" served since 1586 as the firt market of the neigborhood. This forced stop of the oxcarts, had to do with the geography that had once the place, very different from the present one, and particulary due to the existence of the small stream or torrent denominated "Third of the South". The place drained to the present river "Riachuelo". In effect, this last one extended, before its mouth, an arm, towards the north east, that it ran by where today are the docks of "Puerto Madero", separated from the "Rio de la Plata" by a settled sand bank, finally to spill its waters near the Fort, where today is located the "Casa Rosada" (Pink House - the Government House).
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Tete dancing with a tourist
Photo by: Jörgen Lindh
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The famous "El Indio" with partner
Photo by: Jörgen Lindh
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Plaquette in Plaza Dorrego, an ancient site of commerce
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