CASTILLO SAN CARLOS

Count Edouard de Machy had this palace built at the end of the 1880s with his wife, while he set up a canning factory not far away. In 1891, barely five years after their installation, the two husbands set sail for Europe, never to return. The palace was gradually abandoned and burned down in 1938.

Municipal buildings now occupy parts of the palace. But if only a ruin remains, the Castillo was partially renovated in 2013. And above all, it has housed a distinguished guest. It was after a bumpy landing that damaged the wheels of his plane that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, then an aviator for l'Aéropostale, befriended the Fuchs family and accepted their invitation to the San Carlos Palace while waiting for the plane to be repaired. He was surprised after his landing by the two Fuchs girls, who mocked him in French. Some think that they inspired certain features of the Little Prince character. What is certain is that the aviator has an imperishable memory of his passage through this dilapidated citadel. Indeed, a few years after this episode, Saint-Exupéry wrote in the "Oasis" chapter of his novel Terre des hommes: "It was near Concordia, in Argentina [...]. I had landed in a field and I didn't know that I was going to live a fairy tale. "A beautiful statue of the Little Prince, proudly perched on his planet, stands next to the ruins of the palace in the park.

Guided tours are offered every hour