Location
Situated in Lobos, just 120 km away from Buenos Aires' City.

Lodging
Main house: 9 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms
Villa: 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 1 bedroom with 8 beds, 1 bathroom
Extension: 7 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
Bungalow: 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms.

Production
Agriculture and cattlery.

Activities in the ranch
Horseback riding, carriage rides,canoe rides, bicycle riding, swimming pool, tennis court (with brick dust field), football field, polo field, squash and volley courts, fishing or rural-activity watching.

Activities in the zone
Golf in Lobos, only 20 km away from the ranch. Also you can practice fishing and aquatic sports at the Lake of Lobos.

Meals
Regional argentinean ("criolla") and international cuisine.

Conventions
The comfortable meeting rooms of the ranch are available for all type of meetings. Fully equipped with reading desks, sheets board, TV, fax, television and VCR.

Offered services:

• Full board lodging (breakfast, appetizer, lunch, tea, appetizer and dinner). Drinks included.
• A day in the country (reception, appetizer, lunch and tea). Drinks included.
• Business meetings or conventions with lodging (breakfast, coffee break, lunch, coffee break, tea, appetizers and dinner). Drinks included.
• Weddings and receptions: Arranged according to customers' requests.

All services can be modified to meet customers' requirements.

Its History
This ranch is located in the country of Lobos, about 27 km away from the city. The Salado river runs by the south border of the state. The land was purchased by Juan Blaquier y Sagastizábal and Agustina Oromí Escalada, daughter of Nieves Escalada de Oromí, sister-in-law of General San Martín.

They founded the ranch and built the first ranchhouse. Later they purchased the bordering fields that enlarged the state, such as the ranch "Santa Clara" owned by Anchorena and "La Constitucion" owned by Acosta y Santamarina.

Later on, Juan José Blaquier and his wife Mercedes de Elizalde, restored the old house, at the turn of the century, and built a beautiful chapel, raised several auxiliary dependencies and planned the magnificent park which can actually be appreciated in all its entire splendour.

When Juan Jose Silvestre Blaquier inherited the property, it already had 12,000 hectares. It was dedicated mainly to milking, breeding brands such as Shorthon and Holando. Also to produce livestocks for consumption. The cattle-bridding ranch of these races is located in the sector called "Santa Clara", whose products have been awarded in Palermo in many occasions.

Juan Jose Silvestre Blaquier, borned in 1915, dedicated from his early youth to rural activities. He was keen on horses, as a sport and as a must to carry on the rural work, and spent his free time practicing polo, activity in which he reached an outstanding place. He was president of the Rural Society between 1955-56. His life was fatally interrupted in 1958, at the age of 43, when he disappeared in Central American waters, when coming from the United States piloting an airplane that he had just bought.

I entered "La Concepción" a Sunday morning when, by chance, it was Mother's day. All the people of the ranch was in the chapel, attending mass allusive to that date. The day was shinning with all the glory of the early-rising sun in the field and the heat of October cooled the atmosphere. The chapel, surrounded by park, was an architectonic poem with its iron trimmed spire on the blue sky, its chalky walls, its romantic flight of steps opening itself as an arc until touching the grass, its cypresses like guards rising to its sides and a capricious climbing plant, like a spring fringe falling scattered on the widely open door. Inside, songs and prayers, a child crying, other child coughing and a village priest giving the sermon.

When the mass ended, the people scattered, each one to its own. However, the children met in a celebration outdoors, their happiness could be listened behind the fence of privets. We started a walk through the place, staying much longer to enjoy of the splendid day and the beautiful landscape that this rural residence offers. Its proximity to the Capital turns this establishment a retirement place for the weekends , in addition to a long summer staying, for the extensive family that left the missing Juan Jose Silvestre Blaquier, which makes this old original house, a place where to fully enjoy the life in the field.

On the extensive green grass rises the white, large, two-storie house of two floors, like a geometrical figure carefully placed on a carpet. Their discreet slate ceilings let some chimneys passand some architectonic details over the doors that faces towards a superior balcony. Forward , a spacious gallery that includes only the central sector, offers a distinguished place to stay, and above is a terrace. A magnificent park half-closes the residence, separating from its opalina structure, whose beautiful lines, simply elegant, are identified with a classic and aristocratic architecture. A bit separated at one of its sides, another more modern house rises, with white bricks and inclined ceilings . It is an annexed dependency, just like another pavilion located behind. Trees and shrubs of adornment grow between the constructions, framing neatly white walls and gray roofs, some of which, like the spire of the chapel, rises gracefully over the exhuberant trees. In this green area, each tree has the opportunity to show its complete natural form, without passing over others, and letting its folliage expand freely. Between the bright lights that leaves such botanical dignity, delicate fountains and beautiful statues appear suitably situated.

At a side of the park there is a lake, whose contour can be guessed by the trees and cactus that go along the edge. Swimming pool with rich surroundings of shrubs and cypresses; tennis court with privet fence and brick dust floor; further on a field of paddle and squash, it demonstrates the sporting habits of a family who enjoys life outdoors. Walking near a small tower with a clock in its peak, there is a special section, where a great warehouse is situated with raw walls and beautiful architectonic details, that indicate the particular importance of its use. It is the breeding ranch of the polo horses that kept and breeded here, and whose relation with the man surpasses the ideal of fidelity and confidence that hopes to be found in that friendship.

Juan Jose Silvestre Blaquier, fervent enthusiastic of horses and polo, founded the famous Club of Polo "La Concepción" in his ranch, making three polo fields which are a pride of this sport so familiar to our farmers. There, innumerable and famous matches of polo have been played and the best players of the world have paraded in the fields. In 1962 when H.R.H. Prince Phillip of Edimburgo visited our country, he spent four memorable days in this ranch. A championship was organized in its honor in which he participated, demonstrating his well-known experience on this sport of kings and of Argentine farmers.

Other notorious guests that the ranch "La Concepcion" received are: Princess Benedikta from Denmark, Randolph Churchill. The Maharajá of Jaipur, Elie de Rothschild and Roberto de Balkany, Eduardo Kennedy, Henry Ford, the board of the Club of Paris and representatives of the OAS. Also local authorities and personalities have arrived, as well as innumerable cattle dealers groups coming from all parts of the world who have expressed their desire to know a typical Argentine ranch and to spend a day in the field, which is the best thing we have in the Province of Buenos Aires.

El país de las estancias. Autora: Yuyú Guzman
Editorial: Tupac Amaru ediciones.
Junio de 1985.