Pointed towers
Normandy style.
Dario Alpern — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Dario Alpern — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bauness — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dario Alpern — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Marcelo Ois Lagarde — CC BY-SA 3.0
Villa Ortiz Basualdo is a summer mansion built in 1909 for the wealthy Ortiz Basualdo family on Loma Stella Maris, once Mar del Plata's lookout over the sea. Designed by the architects Louis Dubois and Paul Pater, with pointed towers and half-timbering it looks like a house from Normandy, though its structure is stone, the timber lines are painted on, and the roof is zinc. Since 1980 it has housed the municipal art museum, named since 1982 after the painter Juan Carlos Castagnino. It shows the family's original furniture, above all a set of Art Nouveau pieces by the Belgian designer Gustave Serrurier-Bovy, among the most important of its kind in the world, along with some six hundred works by Argentine artists such as Antonio Berni, Raúl Soldi and Castagnino himself. With its neighbours, the villa was declared a National Historic Monument in 2021. It closes on Tuesdays and opens in the afternoon, with a guided tour of the architecture and furniture on Saturdays.
Normandy style.
Original pieces.
Berni and Soldi.
Avenida Colón 1189, Loma Stella Maris, Mar del Plata
Torreón del MonjeThe Torreón del Monje, the Monk's Tower, is a symbol of the seaside city of Mar 4 minutes walk4.5
Rambla and Playa BristolPlaya Bristol is the central beach of Mar del Plata, Argentina's best-known seas10 minutes walk4.3
Villa Victoria OcampoVilla Victoria is a summer house built in 1912 for the wealthy Ocampo family of 23 minutes walk4.5Every day except Tuesday, 14:00-19:00, with a guided tour on Saturdays at 17:00.