History
In 1931 Don Carlos Idaho Gesell purchased 16 acres (65,000 m2) of sand dunes, over the years he planted many thousands of trees and built a home for his family. Between the 1940s and the 1970s the population of Villa Gesell swelled as hippies and free thinkers fleeing the crowded metropolis of Buenos Aires made their way to the picturesque coastal village.
In the early years of Villa Gesell, Don Carlos Gesell introduced the "Plan galopante" (galloping plan) which meant if one would purchase a property inside Villa Gesell, and have built a home within a specified period of time, a percentage of the purchase price would be returned, or cut off from the remainder of payments, in time bringing about thousands of people from around the world, especially Germany and Italy and other European nations, seeking a quiet, and peaceful place to live.
In or around 1970 Villa Gesell gained its status as a city, and as the settlement of Villa Gesell grew in popularity, commercial interests took over, ruining Calos Gesell's idea of a tranquil village surrounded by nature.
As the sand dunes were bulldozed to make space for seafront bars and restaurants, further along the coast, the settlement of Mar Azul was established in order rehabilitate Carlos Gesell's ideals of urban development in tune with nature.
Since 2004 work has been undertaken to remove many of the concrete seafront bars and restaurants, in order to return the coastline of Villa Gesell to the state Carlos Gesell had intended.
Villa Gesell is host to "Le Touquet" one of the largest motocross races in the world. These races are held at close by cities from time to time.
It has been said that "there is no better place to raise a family, than Villa Gesell".
Read more about this topic: Villa Gesell Partido
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“A great proportion of the inhabitants of the Cape are always thus abroad about their teaming on some ocean highway or other, and the history of one of their ordinary trips would cast the Argonautic expedition into the shade.”
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