Qualla: Plaza Independencia

Plaza Independencia: Introduction

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ypsilon from Finland, CC0. Descend a granite staircase in the middle of Montevideo's busiest square, and the noise of the city falls away. At the bottom, in a dim underground chamber lit from a skylight overhead, rests the urn holding the remains of Jose Gervasio Artigas, the man Uruguayans call the father of their nation. Above ground, his 17-meter bronze figure rides a horse at the center of the Plaza Independencia. Few city squares ask you to stand so directly atop a national tomb. This one was built to. The plaza is the great hinge of Montevideo, the threshold between the colonial Old City and the planned new one, and it has held that pivotal role for nearly two centuries.

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Image: Ypsilon from Finland | CC0

Plaza Independencia: A Square Drawn from a Fortress

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Felipe Restrepo Acosta, CC BY-SA 4.0. The plaza occupies ground that once bristled with defenses. It was laid out over the old Citadel of Montevideo, and when independence made the walls obsolete, the city tore them down and opened itself outward. In 1837 planners designed the Ciudad Nueva, the New City, and the arch...

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Image: Felipe Restrepo Acosta | CC BY-SA 4.0

Plaza Independencia: Palms, Fountains, and a Hero on Horseback

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Felipe Restrepo Acosta, CC BY-SA 4.0. For a time the square sat strangely empty, a grand space waiting to be filled. At the start of the twentieth century the French landscape architect Carlos Thays took charge, laying out four French-inspired flower beds with fountains and planting the palm trees that became his sig...

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Image: Felipe Restrepo Acosta | CC BY-SA 4.0

Plaza Independencia: The Long Road Home

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Felipe Restrepo Acosta, CC BY-SA 4.0. Artigas died in exile in Paraguay in 1850, and his journey back to this square was slow and politically fraught. His remains returned to Uruguay in 1972, resting first in the Central Cemetery. Then, on September 27, 1974, during the country's civil-military dictatorship, authorit...

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Image: Felipe Restrepo Acosta | CC BY-SA 4.0

Plaza Independencia: The Stage of a Nation

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit City Vzla, CC BY-SA 4.0. What surrounds the plaza explains why so much happens here. To the east begins 18 de Julio, the city's principal avenue, and the Palacio Salvo rises beside it, a 105-meter skyscraper finished in 1928 that briefly held the title of the tallest building in South America. The Solis ...

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Image: City Vzla | CC BY-SA 4.0