Wednesday, October 28, 2009

O is for Once

Cupola of a Building in Once Buenos Aires, Argentina
Buenos Aires has officially 48 community districts. Many of them are further subdivided into sub-barrios whose names often reflect famous buildings in these subzones. Once is one of these rather unoffical neighborhoods. It is basically a part of the Balvanera barrio but hardly anyone uses this denomination. Once's namesake is the massive Once de Septiembre train station. The Spanish word once means "eleven". The train station was named after Buenos Aires' rebellion against the Federal government on September 11, 1852. So don't get confused, it has nothing to do with the 9/11 terrorists attacks in the US.

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16 comments:

Lowell said...

Very interesting post! That looks like some kind of government building in the background ...

Julie said...

Sydney is divided into municipalities and then further into suburbs. 48 is a lot of community districts. How many people live in BA? I think in Sydney there is something over 4 million people.
I will research this as the day goes on.

Granny Smith said...

A great shot of the building, and I liked the language and history lesson too.

Tumblewords: said...

So very interesting! Lovely architecture.

Leif Hagen said...

Beautiful blue sky and interesting mix or architecture - bravo!

Judi said...

That's a great name for a neighborhood.

B SQUARED said...

I think it would take me awhile to get accustomed to your city.

Roger Owen Green said...

Of COURSE, once is 11. In French, 11 is onze. It does make some sense.
I'd LOVE to be there some day.

Andreea said...

48 community districts sounds like a lot. I know BA is pretty big but still. Is there only one city hall for the entire city or are there administrative subdivisions?

Gerhard said...

Great blog thanks. I've learned so much about Buenos here. I want to visit.

Gerhard said...

Julie, Buenos has apparently got a population of 7 million with another 3 million just outside the city's official border.

EG CameraGirl said...

48 districts? I think I need to Google Buenos Aires and see what the population is!

EG CameraGirl said...

Well, I just checked it out - 13 million!

AB said...

I did not think of 9/11. Instead, I thought it was an Argentinian branch of Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles, the association for the blind that runs the lottery in Spain.

peenkfrik said...

Now that's some trivia.

I had to read the post again because I thought of "Once" as an English word. Locally, we spell eleven as "onse." The root word is Spanish of course.

Unknown said...

Hi you can fine more info in this link about the Great Buenos Aires the megalopolis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Buenos_Aires tu get a most clear idea