Las Mercedes

Las Mercedes is the largest district for shopping and leisure in Latin America. It is located at the Baruta Municipality, Caracas.

Mostly famous for its discos and pubs, it also contains many famous clothing and fahsion stores, art galleries, and some of the most expensive and exclusive restaurants of the city, that include diverse gastronimcal specialties from local food such as areperas to foreign and international food.

Also in Las Mercedes takes place a series of cultural activities at the "Plaza Alfredo Sadel" and the "Rio de Janeiro avenue" that serve as recreation for the community, between which emphasizes the Day of the International Unit, that is celebrated on October 12. This act has like purpose, the friendship between all the countries, in addition, is made an exhibition of iconographies of all the customs and traditions of the different cultures that coexist in Venezuela.

History

Las Mercedes was a residential neighborhood, made for the expansion of Caracas, until the 1970s where the district had definitively shifted from residential to almost purely commercial. In 1955 the first mall of Caracas was inaugurated in Las Mercedes, “Las Mercedes Mall” or “Cada de Las Mercedes”, when the urbanism of the zone begun, this mall was one of the most important of Caracas, was designed by "Don Hatch", Also in the 1970s and 1980s, important shopping centers were inaugurated, like the "Paseo Las Mercedes", many stores, established at the district, many restaurants and governmental organizations. In the 2000s important malls have opened their doors, like the Tolón Mall, in 2006 the Baruta mayorship begun remodeling the "Plaza Alfredo Sadel", with a project of the architect "Jimmy Alcock", and the recuperation of Las Mercedes drainages, plans for a future expansion of line 4 of the Caracas Metro will connect the district in two stations, "Las Mercedes" and "Tamanaco", with "Plaza Venezuela" and "Parque del Este" of line 1, and help reduce some of the traffic jams the zone is also known for.

ee also

*Caracas
*Baruta Municipality
*Venezuelan Capital District

References

* [http://www.caracasvirtual.com/centrosc.asp Las Mercedes Mall history]
* [http://www.baruta.gov.ve/detalle.asp?id=853&plantilla=8 Culture of the Baruta Municipality]
* [http://www.motorawards.com/ve/noticias/detalle.asp?aid=770 Plaza Alfredo Sadel]