From Tornquist to Rosario or Paraná, a tour of parks and squares to enjoy the work of Carlos Thays

From the symmetrical shapes of a German public promenade decorated with native South American flora to a stately French-style garden in the heart of the humid pampas, everything fits into the universe of green spaces created by Carlos Thays in dozens of cities and towns in Argentina.

The virtuous contribution of the French naturalist, architect and urban planner since 1889, when he arrived in the country from Paris (where he was born in 1849) continued even to the present day through five generations of agricultural engineers and landscapers in his family who followed in his footsteps.

Jules Charles Thays (the pioneer's original name) had crossed the Atlantic with the sole purpose of creating Sarmiento Park, the largest breath of fresh air in the city center of Córdoba. He more than fulfilled that objective, earning him a call from Francisco Bollini, then mayor of Buenos Aires, to take over as director of the city's Parks and Promenades.

To honor the position he was about to hold from 1891 to 1913, Thays dedicated himself to studying the characteristics of the region's flora and the country's native species, without neglecting the training of his Buenos Aires son Carlos León (born in 1894), who would become his most accomplished disciple.

Until then, the only wooded area of ​​the city was Tres de Febrero Park, which emerged in the 1870s at the initiative of President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento.

Thays was responsible for enhancing this space, which was designated as a recreational area without exclusions—popularized as the "Bosques de Palermo" (Palermo Forests), and for creating or remodeling 68 other plots suitable for relaxation and leisure, including the Centenario, Barrancas Belgrano, Avellaneda, Lezama, Rivadavia, and Los Andes parks, as well as the central Plaza de Mayo and Congreso squares, in addition to the Botanical Garden.

The specialist's effective formula combined straight tree-lined paths with curved paths, fountains, sculptures, roundabouts, lakes, gazebos for bands, sports areas, public restrooms, children's games, roundabouts and drinking fountains .

These landscape aesthetic designs that alternated -as the case may be- symmetrical designs with some delicate English touch and, above all, the French picturesqueness of the Belle Époque, were also applied by Thays in more than 50 parks of rural estates, some 40 gardens of family residences and dozens of public promenades in the interior, such as the striking 9 de Julio Park in San Miguel de Tucumán , inaugurated in 1908.

Just as the circuit of monumental buildings erected in the 1930s by Italian architect Francisco Salamone in the province of Buenos Aires suggests, the legacy of the Thays dynasty traces an itinerary for planning a getaway, where the scenic and natural appeal of each destination's historic green space is added to its most promoted references.

One of the most complete examples of this invaluable heritage is displayed in the six blocks of the Tornquist plaza - near Sierra de la Ventana - where the project presented to the landowner Ernesto Tornquist in 1905 left the Santa Rosa de Lima church in the exact center of the land, framed by a lake with islets and bridges, 300 trees, pedestrian streets, children's games, benches, sculptures and fountains.

Here, moreover, the classic postcard merges Thays's legacy with the monumental City Hall building, which bears Salamone's indelible mark.

In turn, the harmonious layout of Lincoln 's Rivadavia Plaza - renamed General San Martín Park - is due to a project presented in 1920 by Carlos Thays Jr.

The place has some reminiscences of the El Potrero Protected Natural Area, the only private botanical garden in the country, conceived in Victoria (Entre Ríos) around a 1850 house that belonged to Joaquín Vivanco, personal physician of the former President of the Nation, Justó José de Urquiza.

The lush gardens designed by Charles Thays in 1902 for the Plaza Colón in Azul and remodeled by Salamone in a more avant-garde style seem to multiply across the three levels of Urquiza Park, whose 44 hectares extend over a cliff overlooking the river and the port of Paraná.

From this reserve decorated with trees, plants and flowers crisscrossed by stairs, streets, sculptures and paths that converge in a rose garden, Thays and the Japanese gardener Julio Kumagae filled the atmosphere of the capital of Entre Ríos with natural fragrances.

The same feeling of well-being is felt in the Independence Park of Rosario , Santa Fe (designed by Thays in 1900 and opened to the public in 1902), and in the park that flourishes next to the Hudson Malting Wetland (in the Berazategui district), a coastal strip recovered by Carlos León Thays in 1936.

There's much more to discover about the founding work that emerged from the virtuous hands of this pioneer and his descendants . For that, you can look to the Tigre Delta. or the park of the Presidential Residence in Olivos. But Thays's footprints also appear suddenly along the way, outside of any program .