The spa that keeps stories of Mirtha Legrand, Pablo Neruda and an old hotel that looks like a ship

The scene belongs to the film La casta Susana (1944) and can be found on YouTube. A beautiful Mirtha Legrand walks through the Atlantis beachwith a black headdress and dress.

A man, wearing a striped swimsuit, approaches her to try to seduce her and the following dialogue occurs. “You are charming, beautiful. What eyes! What a mouth”He tells her. She, with a mischievous smile, finishes: “How impulsive!”.

Almost 80 years have passed since the premiere of that film, but the Uruguayan resort Atlántida It still maintains something of the spirit of the time.

There are still the three kilometers of ramblelas mansions and standing buildings with exquisite spa architecture of the decade of the 30s and 40s -reminiscent of the luxury of French spas-, the dunes, the ravines, the araucarias and the pines.

He spirit of stroller -the art of strolling, walking aimlessly- and also a certain beach imaginary of the 20th century still live in this spa and in others in Canelones, the department that offers 65 kilometers of estuary of the Silver riverIn uruguay.

“He first bus from Montevideo to Atlántida It arrived in 1924,” says Darcy Ferraro, guide and history teacher, in the first minutes of the Atlántida Centennial Walk Tour, the one-hour walk offered by the tourist office to learn about the history of the spa.

The guide goes from the Tropicana style nights of the 40s to the Belle Époque. And from the architecture to the customs of the time, like that beach commissioner who sanctioned those who did not observe good practices and customs.

On the promenade, on the banks of the river, some Norman style tower housesbay windows, tiles, exaggerated eaves and mosaics on the façade.

Some little chateau suntuosos They are combined with other more modest constructions.

There is a chalet from the 1950s that could go unnoticed; perhaps very sober among so many mansions, but it has a story. “Alberto Mantaras, a friend of Pablo Neruda, lived here,” says Ferraro.

In that house, Neruda spent the summers between 1953 and 1956 with Matilde Urrutia, at that time his clandestine love. Datitla is the anagram – without using the n – that the poet used to name the resort; In this way, he hid the names of places to keep his relationship with his lover a secret. The testimony of that romance is in the poetic herbarium Ode to the Flowers of Datitla, which both made in 1953. In front of the house, a Neruda monolith remember the story.

After the Barranca de los Indios, comes one of the jewels of the walk: the ex Planeta Palace Hotela building conceived by the Italian Natalio Michelizzi in the shape of a boat – actually, an ocean liner – that gives the sensation of entering the river.

“It is influenced by the great ocean liners of the time, like the Queen Mary. In what would be the hull of the ship was the bar, where large parties were organized. “Its architecture is full of nautical references,” notes the guide, who adds that Mirtha Legrand spent part of her honeymoon in this hotel.

Entering the hall is a trip back in time, with Bauhaus-style furniture, a chandelier with futuristic touches and an imposing Carrara marble staircase.

Another of the great jewels of Atlántida is the Church of Christ the Worker, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2021. The engineer Eladio Dieste created his masterpiece before the Second Vatican Council, but aware of the necessary reforms in the Church. That idea is reflected in this marvel of architecture and the collective sense of the liturgy.

Inside, the guide Ferraro notes the effects of overhead light – he speaks of a “liturgical use of light”-, the undulation of the walls, the hidden tensioners and the double-curved vaults, in addition to a sober altar made with a single granite stone in a single rectangular nave.

The amber flashes and the lights that filter through are wonderful. “The influence of Gaudí and Le Corbusier is clear, but in a clear style of Latin American critical regionalism. “He uses light as an architectural material,” he adds.

The tour continues in the El Águila Viewpoint and in A sun for Atlantisa ten-ton iron sculpture that Agó Páez Vilaró made in tribute to his father, the always remembered Carlos Páez Vilaró.

The visit to wineries It is a must-see in the area (Uruguay has more than 40 open to the public). We chose Bracco Bosca, which produces just 100,000 high-quality bottles a year. Their Gran Ombú Cabernet Franc is the most awarded in the house, which also offers accommodation and a terrace to enjoy a wine overlooking the estate.

Atlántida is just one of the spas worth visiting in Canelones. There are also Las Toscas, with its enormous dunes, where Idea Vilariño and Alfredo Zitarrosa used to spend the summer; the calm and wild Jaureguiberry; Cuchilla Alta and La Floresta, with its lively Cra cultural space, among others.

In any of the spas there will be the river and its beaches for a refreshing swim, the dunes, the trees, the brackish water. As Neruda said in that love letter to these lands: “You return me not only to the honey of love and its delight, but to the purest circumstances of the earth: to the dry and sullen flora of the sea, of the air, of silence.”