Villa Epecuén

Villa Epecuén was a spa town on the shore of a salt lake in the pampas of Buenos Aires Province. Its founder, Arturo Vatteone, opened the first bathing establishment on 23 January 1921, and the town grew quickly around the lake, whose water is almost as salty as the Dead Sea and was promoted for its healing powers. Railways brought visitors from Buenos Aires, and at its height the village had about 1,500 inhabitants, up to 280 hotels, guesthouses and businesses, and some 25,000 visitors each summer.

The lake ended it. Heavy rains through the early 1980s raised the water level year after year, and on 6 November 1985 the water broke a nearby dam and then the embankment protecting the town. The water kept rising until it stood about ten metres deep, and the town was never rebuilt. For roughly twenty-five years Epecuén lay under the lake. When the water began to recede around 2009, it revealed a ghost town coated in white and grey salt: the grid of streets, the dike, the shells of houses, hotels and shops, rusted cars and a forest of dead trees bleached like bone. One former resident, Pablo Novak, returned to live among the ruins and stayed until his death in January 2024.

At the edge of the ruins stands the most striking building of all, the slaughterhouse designed by the engineer Francisco Salamone and opened in 1938 — an Art Deco fantasy whose tower is shaped like a butcher's blade softened by wheels and gears, one of the bold municipal buildings Salamone scattered across the province in the 1930s. The flood left it half ruined in a landscape of salt; flocks of flamingos fly over the lake. The combination of dead trees, pale rubble and still water makes Epecuén one of the most haunting places in Argentina.

Getting there

The ruins lie about 7 km from Carhué, the nearest town, and some 63 km from Pigüé; from Buenos Aires the drive is roughly 500 km. The slaughterhouse can be seen from outside only. The nearest airport is Santa Rosa (RSA), about 144 km away.