Club Hotel de la Ventana

Club Hotel de la Ventana was a large, luxurious hotel resort, built by the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway and opened in 1911 near Villa Ventana, 17 km from the town of Sierra de La Ventana, in the southeast of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.The resort was designed by the Italian architect Antonio Gherardi, who also designed the customs house in the nearby city of Bahía Blanca. Construction began in 1904 with bricks provided by Ernesto Tornquist, a prominent local businessman,. The Hotel had a luxurious interior and rivalled the best hotels in the world at that time. It could accommodate 350 guests and had 173 rooms and four large suites. Features included a solarium, a restaurant decorated in Louis XVI style, a winter garden, a ballroom with 150 seats were films could be shown, three casino halls, a night club, two beauty salons, a tower with a panoramic view over the surrounding mountains, a concert hall, a well-stocked library, an 18-hole golf course, a football pitch and three tennis courts. There was also a riding stable, a swimming pool, a hospital, a pharmacy, a hair dresser, and a large gymnasium. The resort was set in a park of 126 ha. designed by the French-born Argentine architect and landscape designer Carlos Thays who included a wide variety of European trees.