Discover Santa Bernardina

Santa Bernardina offers two distinct starting points for planning a trip: Aeropuerto Internacional de Durazno and Pozo de los Deseos on Avenida Carlos Reyles. If you’re looking for a hotel in Santa Bernardina, you can first consider whether your stay will focus mainly on the local attractions or whether you’re also interested in the landscapes and culture of the wider destination of Durazno. The following destinations are quite different—from a well with a history of water use to riverside landscapes, geology, and historical collections.

Visits to Aeropuerto Internacional de Durazno

Aeropuerto Internacional de Durazno is located in Santa Bernardina. Visitors may enter all public areas. For security reasons, passengers and crew members may enter restricted areas only when accompanied by authorized personnel. Check the airport operator’s latest notices before your trip. Visits for organizations or schools must be arranged in advance so that the necessary permits can be obtained; check the current arrangements with the operator before making plans.

Pozo de los Deseos and its history

Pozo de los Deseos on Avenida Carlos Reyles is a tourist destination for a stroll. Its history is connected with water: the well once served as a natural source of drinking water and supplied water for the old steam locomotives. On February 8, 2020, the well—which had previously been abandoned and overgrown with grass—was inaugurated as a symbolic wishing well. This brings together the site’s former use as a water source and its later symbolic reinterpretation.

In a notice from April 2022, Pozo was described as open to the public around the clock and as one of Durazno’s tourist attractions. Since this information dates from 2022, check the latest notices before planning a visit.

Landscapes in the wider destination of Durazno

In the wider destination of Durazno, the 3,500-meter-long Eco Sendero “Riberas del Río Yi” passes through natural areas along the riverside forest of the Río Yi. The route connects the beach in the Puerto de los Barriles neighborhood with the Paraje Rebollo area, which has a beach and sandy areas. The focus here is on riverside landscapes and a route through natural areas; Pozo de los Deseos, by contrast, is shaped by its former use and subsequent transformation.

Another natural attraction in the wider destination of Durazno is Gruta de La Llorona in La Paloma. The sandstone formation, which is more than 20 meters high, formed in a marine environment during the Early Devonian, about 380 million years ago. The surrounding area has a distinctive microclimate due to its pronounced terrain gradient and humidity. Native trees, ferns, and culandrillos grow there. Unlike the riverside forest of the Río Yi, the landscape here is defined by its geological formation and the vegetation of the microclimate.

Culture and collections in Durazno

In the wider destination of Durazno, Museo Histórico Casa de Rivera brings together the history of a building and extensive collections. It is housed in the former residence of General Fructuoso Rivera and has served as a museum since 1992. The Durazno Department Archives are located there, comprising a document archive, an archive of voice and music, and an image archive. This image archive contains several thousand pieces of the cultural heritage of the department and the country.

Military history is the focus of Museo Batalla del Río de la Plata (Cuartel Paso del Rey). The collection covers the history of Cuartel de Sarandí del Yi and includes weapons, uniforms, and documentary photographs. Objects and photographs also commemorate the time German battleship Graf Spee crew members spent there. Durazno’s cultural offerings therefore differ: Casa de Rivera focuses on archival collections and the historic building, while Cuartel Paso del Rey focuses on military history collections and memorabilia.

This distinction can help you plan around the themes you’d like to include in your stay.

Discover more destinations: Durazno, La Paloma.

Go to the wider travel overview: Durazno.