
La Plata, on the banks of the River Plate is the attractive capital of Buenos Aires province. Founded in 1882, it was designed as a square with two diagonal avenues, a large central square and smaller parks every six blocks. The principal buildings were designed by international competition winners, and include a neo-Gothic cathedral, a Renaissance-style opera house, a university with an observatory and the highly-respected natural history museum which houses 3 million fossils.