White building
Curved walls.
Talkingheads — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Marcelo Campi — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Gustavo Muñoz Clos — CC BY-SA 3.0
A strange white building climbing a rocky slope above the ocean at Punta Ballena, built by Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró with his own hands over decades, with no plan, curved walls, domes and irregular windows, like a bird's nest or an imaginary Mediterranean village. It began as a small house and studio for the artist and grew layer by layer into a museum, workshop and hotel. The museum shows his paintings, sculpture and ceramics in bright colours, and the story of his life and travels. Casapueblo's best-known moment is sunset: visitors gather on the terraces facing the ocean, and a poem recorded in the artist's voice plays as the sun sinks into the water, a daily ritual that has become the place's most famous tradition. Reach it by taxi or bus from Punta del Este; the road to the entrance is steep. Punta del Este is very busy and pricey in summer, December to February, and very quiet the rest of the year.
Curved walls.
Paintings and ceramics.
The artist's poem.
Punta Ballena, about 15 km west of Punta del Este
Just before sunset, for the daily sunset ritual on the terraces with a poem in the artist's voice.
