Conchillas 130th anniversary

The town of Conchillas is located 7 Km from Route 21 and around 50 Km from Colonia del Sacramento. The charm of Conchillas is linked to its history. The birth of this town is directly linked to the arrival of the British company C. H. Walker & Co., in 1887, which based itself there in order to exploit the dunes which would be used for the construction of the port of Buenos Aires. This industry led to the arrival of workers of different nationalities: English, Italian, Scottish, Greek, Bulgarian, Austrian, Basque, Turkish and German, who settled there and formed the town, giving it a unique identity. The houses with stone walls over a meter thick, set in the ground and painted yellow, with red, zinc gabled roofs remain as testimony to a time marked by the influence of the English community that settled there. The houses of the first settlers and the ‘Hotel Conchillas’ are now National Historic Landmarks. The hotel, which was completed in 1911, was the initiative of the owners of C. H. Walker & Co, initially to give friends and family members visiting from England a place to stay. Another emblematic building is “Casa Evans” constructed by the immigrant David Evans. It was one of the most important businesses in Uruguay, so much so that the government authorized him to mint his own currency. The Conchillas Port, approximately five km from the town center, is an important resort which also has remnants of the splendors of the last century. The town owes its name to the large amount of fossil material found in the quarries along the coast. Source: Uruguay Natural

Published by Senior Library