Plaza Independencia (Independence Square), Montevideo (must see)

José Gervasio Artigas, the national hero of Uruguayan independence, was deeply influenced by Enlightenment and revolutionary thinkers such as Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Although he is widely regarded as the father of Uruguayan nationhood, Artigas spent his final years in exile in Paraguay, where he died in 1850. His remains were later repatriated and today rest in the Artigas Mausoleum, located beneath Independence Square, at the symbolic center of Montevideo.

Independence Square was first conceived in the 1830s by Italian architect Carlo Zucchi, who drew inspiration from large European civic squares. The space was later redesigned in the mid-19th century by Bernardo Poncini, a Swiss architect and sculptor. In the center of the square stands the equestrian statue of Artigas, created by Italian sculptor Angelo Zanelli and inaugurated in 1923. Beneath the monument lies the underground mausoleum, accessed by stairways descending from the base of the statue.

Standing in the square, the western side is marked by the Citadel Gate, the last surviving entrance of the colonial fortifications. Facing east, the square opens directly onto 18 de Julio Avenue, Montevideo’s principal boulevard, with the Salvo Palace rising prominently at its beginning. Along the southern edge of the square, stands the Estévez Palace, a 19th-century presidential residence now used for ceremonial functions; immediately behind and adjoining it rises the glass-and-steel Executive Tower, the current workplace of the President of Uruguay.