Entre Rios’ second most important city, San Antonio de Padua de la Concordia or Concordia for short, lies some 450 km north of Buenos Aires on the banks of the Rio Uruguay in the heart of Argentina’s citrus-growing region, opposite the city of Salto in Uruguay. Some 400 years ago the area was inhabited by the Guarani, Charruas, Chanaes and Yaro tribes and although they have largely disappeared their language lives on through words such as uruguay and cabure.

The city, founded in 1832, rapidly became one of the most important cities on the Rio Uruguay. At its heart stands the Plaza 25 de Mayo, one of a hundred plazas built to commemorate Argentine independence, and each boasts a statue of General Jose de San Martin, the Argentine independence hero. The Catedral San Antonio de Padua, the Palacio Municipal and the Museo de Artes Visuales all overlook the plaza, while the Museo Historico Regional, a few blocks away, is housed in one of Concordia’s most illustrious edifices, the French neoclassical Palacio Arruabarrena built in 1919.
In the Parque San Carlos by the river are what remains of the Castillo de San Carlos, another lavish residence built by the French Count Eduardo de Machy in 1888. Concordia is surrounded by pine and eucalyptus forests and orange orchards and some 60 km to the south is El Palmar National Park, an important reserve for Yatay palm trees.