Campanópolis, a medieval and sustainable village just a stone’s throw from Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires It represents a perfect combination of various architectural trends, such as academicism, art deco and brutalism. And although, due to its history, it lacks medieval artistic heritage, no one would say so when entering a village located just 30 kilometres from the big city: Campanópolis.

The Mirador Tower, the Plaza del Mástil or the Pasaje del Búho are some of the constructions of this spectacular ‘medieval’ settlement Located in the Buenos Aires municipality of The slaughter, which celebrated its 35th anniversary last March and currently employs around 200 people.

After walking through the cobbled streets that are reminiscent of the villages of the old continent, a peculiarity is discovered: it is made up of railings, domes, beams and other construction elements brought from Europe and reused in a very creative way in this village.

The history of this tourist enclave today has its origins in Antonio Campanaa major canning businessman, who decided in 1976 to buy 200 hectares as an investment and who, shortly after, suffered from cancer that led him to build this site, according to Oscar Campana, current administrator of the park and son of the founder.

“After this difficult situation, he decided to recycle a garbage dump that existed on those lands, and transform it, first of all, into fertile land with more than 100,000 trees,” he told EFE.

After reforesting the area, his father decided to build a European-style city, emulating the streets of Calabria in honor of his parents who were immigrants from that town in southern Italy.

“Some people play golf, others travel the world, and he wanted to build this with his savings without being an architect, without having any knowledge, but with a great postgraduate degree in imagination,” says Oscar.

He says that this ability to recycle architectural elements or remains from other buildings to build made his father a great visionary in everything that has to do with ecology and the environment: he made floors with tiles, roofs with doors, and even used bricks and debris from construction sites.

Over the years, what was once a personal project led to the park being opened to the public, due to the high costs of maintenance and the growing demands to be able to contemplate this sustainable journey through the Middle Ages.

Growing up visiting places like the Twelve Little Houses of the Forest, or playing as a child in the dressing rooms that emulate royal chambers, made Oscar see everything as something normal and made him truly aware when he heard people’s words about this magical place.

“You have a father who is an ice cream maker and you no longer like chocolate ice cream, but your friends do,” he explains, laughing.

Its peculiar design made it a stage for national presentations for medieval series as ‘Knightfall’ (2017) and ‘Game of Thrones’ (2011) or events as unusual as the birthday celebration of the Argentine coach’s wife Carlos Bianchi or the release of the album ‘Drama y Luz’, by the Mexican band Maná in 2011.

Regarding the growing success of the site in recent years, Oscar Campana points out that, curiously, after the Covid-19 pandemic, the influx of tourists increased, something that he believes is due to the “change of mentality” in people after that extreme situation worldwide.

“I am convinced that after Covid, people in the world changed, and above all, they began to dare and have courage,” he says.

The aim of this building, which was his father’s dream, is to continue growing and leave a message: the desire for people to have more time to enjoy the “now” because “we are all living in a very rushed world,” concludes Oscar from a place completely anchored in the past.