ART NOUVEAU

Concordia has established itself as a benchmark for Art Nouveau in Argentina, offering visitors a unique experience that combines history, art, and architecture.
The Art Nouveau Route invites you to explore more than ten buildings of high heritage value, inspired by this modernist style from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Their designs reflect Italian, Spanish, and Viennese influences, characteristic of the movement, and coexist with notable examples of Academicist y Belle Époquearchitecture, which enrich the city's urban landscape.

Concordia was recognized as the "2025 Art Nouveau City of America" by the Art Nouveau Buenos Aires Association (AANBA) and the Argentine Art Nouveau Route (RANN), with the support of the National Secretariat of Tourism. This distinction positioned it as a national and international benchmark in cultural, heritage, and architectural tourism, integrating it into the Pan-American and European Art Nouveau Route.
The designation included the selection of an “Emblematic Art Nouveau Building,” the placement of a commemorative bronze plaque on the Concordia Bishopric building, and the incorporation of the city into the Passport BA guide, strengthening its visibility at all levels.
The recognition, supported by organizations such as CAME Turismo, FECOBA, ICOMOS (UNESCO International Council on Monuments and Sites), and the European Union, granted Concordia a seal of international prestige, consolidating it as a key destination within the Art Nouveau circuit and boosting the tourism and cultural development of the Salto Grande region.
 

The spirit of Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau marks the moment when architecture stopped imitating Greek columns and Gothic arches to be inspired, instead, by the organic forms of nature.

Let us imagine the year 1893. The Belgian engineer, Victor Horta, enters his studio with a lily leaf in his hand. He observes it carefully, turns it on his workbench, and states: «This curve will be my staircase». From that gesture, the history of architecture changes forever.
The iron, previously hidden behind stone walls, is released and curves like a stem. The glass ceases to be a simple opening to transform into a translucent petal. The ceramic, for its part, is no longer limited to the square tile: it becomes a fish scale, shining when the sun caresses it.

Before Art Nouveau, elegant residences evoked classical temples or Gothic cathedrals; architecture repeated the past. Art Nouveau breaks with that tradition and proclaims a new truth: «Nature is neither symmetrical nor straight; nature is movement».
That is why its facades are never identical from one side to the other: one window may open like a blooming iris, while another remains closed like a bud. This vital aesthetic inaugurates an organic, free and deeply modern present.

How to recognize it on the street?

Start by observing the balconies: if the iron seems to sprout from the wall and curl like a vine, you are facing an example of this style.
Look at the railings: they are not industrial tubes, but branches frozen in full growth.
Look at the window frames: they are not straight or pointed, but petals that curve toward the light.
If there are stained glass windows, come closer: you might find dragonflies, peacocks, or plant motifs that change color with the sun.

Art Nouveau has an unmistakable signature: a continuous line that is born at the base of the building, ascends the columns, transforms into a leaf, into a lamp, and finally dissolves into the sky.

The materials also express their essence:

• The wrought iron, worked by fire and hammer, becomes metallic filigree.
• The ceramic shines with pearlescent reflections thanks to metallic oxides that vary their tone with the light.
• The blown glass refracts the sun's rays in multiple shades.

Inside, the space flows without rigidity: the walls curve gently, the stairs ascend in a spiral, the door handles evoke snails, and the mirrors open like butterfly wings. Everything seems to breathe in harmony.

It could be said that any building that makes you feel you have entered a garden built with iron and glass is a work of Art Nouveau. Plaques or dates are not needed: nature, converted into architecture, reveals it by itself.

Art Nouveau in Argentina and in Concordia

In Argentina, the Art Nouveau style developed mainly between 1900 y 1920, influenced by European currents and by the arrival of French, Italian and Belgian immigrants.
In Concordia, this movement had a significant presence, reflecting the economic boom of the era and the close cultural bond with Europe.
It is interesting to note that many owners acquired the blueprints for their homes during their business trips in the Old Continent.

Art Nouveau in the city was manifested both in public buildings as well as in private homes and commercial establishments from the beginning of the 20th century, constituting an architectural legacy of unique heritage value.

1. Alem 12 (corner of Entre Ríos)
2. Aristóbulo del Valle 254 (corner of Brown)
3. Aristóbulo del Valle 276
4. Buenos Aires 321
5. Alberdi 41
6. Societá Italiana "La Concordia", Buenos Aires 78
7. Entre Ríos 666
8. H. Yrigoyen and Carriego
9. San Juan and 1° de Mayo
10. Urdinarrain 13-11
11. Casa Ricós, Urquiza 751
12. Villa Yolanda, Roque Sáenz Peña 352
13. Archbishopric Headquarters, Pellegrini 800
14. Sociedad Italiana de S.M., Pellegrini 1092

Some outstanding places to visit…