Outings and excursions · Concordia
Concordia: San Carlos Castle and the story of The Little Prince
Photos: Pedro Luis Figueroa / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Opposite Salto, the ruins of an 1888 palace where Saint-Exupéry landed in 1929, in a park on the Uruguay river.
Concordia, facing Salto across the Uruguay river, holds one of the loveliest stories of the region in San Carlos Park: the castle where the author of The Little Prince landed.
The castle
San Carlos Castle was built in 1888 as a French-style residence by a French businessman. A fire in 1938 left it in ruins, and today its walls stand in a park of about 70 hectares by the river.Saint-Exupéry
In 1929, aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry made a forced landing in front of the castle and met two young women who lived there. The experience appears in his book Wind, Sand and Stars, and many see it as an inspiration for The Little Prince, whose statue recalls the visit in the park.
Getting there from Uruguay
From Salto, cross over the Salto Grande dam bridge: Concordia is on the other side.
Tips
- Add an afternoon at the Concordia hot springs.
- Bring your ID to cross the border.
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