Travel Guide El Real De San Carlos

You can reach Real de San Carlos (5 min by scooter) by heading west from Colonia, along the Rambla Cristobál Colón. On the whole journey, there are magnificent sandy beaches lined with trees. Buses also go to General Flores, the main avenue of the city.The site known as Real de San Carlos was first the location chosen by Vice-king Pedro de Cevallos in 1761, the time of the Portuguese colony in Colonia del Sacramento. Real's term designated the land of the King in Spain (then Carlos III) and gave his name to the location.The chapel of San Benito de Palermo was built as well as all the buildings necessary for the establishment of a garrison. As a simple suburb of Colonia until the beginning of this century, she lived the arrival of a large number of Argentine investors who contributed to revaloriser the land and raising its price.In the tourist project designed to attract the Argentins were included the buildings of a Plaza de Toros, a pediment de pelota and the Grand Hotel Casino which was the only one not to be built. The Moorish style of Plaza de Toros, whose construction has required more than one million kilos of iron, is inspired in part by the one in southern Spain. The pelota pediment is named after Euskaro and was inaugurated on 27 November 1927. It is still today, 64 m long and 21 m wide, the largest in South America. After a certain number of bullfighting in this place, President José Batlle y Ordóñez ended up banning this practice. As a result, iron caused the appearance of large lézardes in walls that weakened the building so much that it was closed to the public because of the collapse risk.