CARMEN DE PATAGONES is a slow-paced town with a small historical centre, attractively sited on a small hill on the northern bank of the Río Negro . Patagones was the symbolic gateway to Patagonia from its founding in 1779 to at least the Campaign of the Desert a hundred years later, and you can spend a pleasant couple of hours exploring this legacy. Across the water is the town's dull sister, VIEDMA . People living in Patagones say that the best thing about flat Viedma is the view of it from Patagones' main Plaza 7 de Marzo , and you certainly won't miss much if this is as close as you get. In the 1980s, President Alfonsín's government declared that Viedma was to be the future federal capital of Argentina instead of Buenos Aires. Needless to say, the plan bombed.

Founded by Francisco de Viedma, Patagones was the second of the strategic settlements created to fortify the Patagonian coast from the incursions of English and Portuguese pirates, and the only one to survive in the long term. The first families came direct from Spain, many from the Maragatería region of León in Old Castile, and inhabitants of the town are known to this day as Maragatos . Their first houses were caves excavated in the cliff face. Patagones' finest hour came on March 7, 1827, during the fledgling Argentine Republic's war with Brazil over the Banda Oriental (present-day Uruguay), when a force of local militiamen outwitted a far superior force of Brazilian troops who tried to storm the town in reprisal for raids on Brazilian ships. The two vast standards they captured can be seen in the Neoclassical Iglesia Parroquial Nuestra Señora de Carmen (8am-noon & 3-8pm) on the Plaza 7 de Marzo. Built between 1880 and 1885 and named after the settlement's protector Virgin, this twin-towered edifice was the first Salesian church in Patagonia and replaced the earlier fort church. Of the original fort, only the stone watchtower, the Torre del Fuerte , survives, now dwarfed by the neighbouring church. Dating back to 1780, it's Patagonia's oldest building. Patagones also has a well-presented and informative Museo Histórico , opposite the ferry to Viedma, at J.J. Viedma 64 (Mon-Fri 10am-noon & 2.30-4.30pm, Sun 5-7pm; free).