Аргентинадағы Вилла-Геселл қаласы

City in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina

Villa Gesell is a seaside resort city in Villa Gesell Partido, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It was founded in 1931, with the intention of turning a dune field into a timber plantation. The growth of the city allowed it to annex the nearby cities of Mar de las Pampas, Las Gaviotas and Mar Azul.

The city is named after Carlos Idaho Gesell (1891–1979), the son of German economist Silvio Gesell. Carlos Gesell bought wood at Tigre for his business, and wanted to plant pines somewhere near Mar del Plata to reduce costs. Gesell was not planning to build a city at that point. Héctor Guerrero, owner of most lands in the region, told him of of sand dunes on sale for 28,000 pesos, and Gesell bought them in 1931 when he checked for the existence of groundwater in the area. The coastline was long. He immediately began to forest the area, and built a house for himself in 1932. This house is now a municipal museum. In 2020, Villa Gesell was the site of the murder of Fernando Báez Sosa, which gained nationwide notoriety.

Villa Gesell has an oceanic climate (Cfb in Koppen Climate Classification).

Being a coastal city, the main tourist attraction in Villa Gesell is the beach. The Villa Gesell beach is long, with a soft slope, and a variety of spas built alongside; the annexed cities of Mar de las Pampas, Las Gaviotas and Mar Azul extend the beachside to The city has a staff of 150 lifeguards. The area around the lighthouse operates as a nature reserve as well. The city has a zoo, a golf course, a market of crafts and many discos. Villa Gesell and Pinamar, both tourist cities, have a regional rivalry about the type of tourist trade they cater to. Pinamar aims for wealthy Argentine tourists, while Villa Gesell aims for those in the middle class.

The city is served by Aeropuerto de Villa Gesell.

Villa Gesell is built parallel to the coastline, along a main avenue. The architecture has a mix of styles, with buildings of different sizes, shapes and colours. The urban development at the beaches proved to be harmful to the environment, as the beach became gradually smaller each year. The city sought to revert this effect, and as the franchises of each spa began to expire, they were not renewed. The buildings made with bricks and concrete were demolished, and replaced with smaller buildings made of wood. Automobile traffic was banned next to the beach, and each beach lease was allowed a maximum of 80 tents.