Puerto Madryn, Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina

🇦🇷 Puerto Madryn is a city in the province of Chubut in Argentine Patagonia. It is the capital of the Viedma Department. Puerto Madryn is protected by the Golfo Nuevo, which is formed by the Península Valdés and the Punta Ninfas. It is an important centre for tourists visiting the natural attractions of the Península Valdés and the coast.

A new shopping mall in the city centre has helped tourism significantly, making Puerto Madryn a more attractive place for both international and domestic tourists visiting Patagonia. The first of a two-Test tour to Argentina by the Wales national rugby union team was played in 2006 in Puerto Madryn, a 27–25 win for Argentina. Puerto Madryn is home to two football clubs; Club Social y Atlético Guillermo Brown, who play in Nacional B and Deportivo Madryn that currently play in Torneo Argentino B.

A basketball team, Deportivo Puerto Madryn, plays in the Liga Nacional de Básquetbol (LNB). Their home arena is known as the Deportivo Puerto Madryn Arena.

El Tehuelche Airport is located 10 km (6 miles) north-west of the city centre. Commercial flights from Buenos Aires, Ushuaia, and other Argentinian cities are available. Most tourists fly into Trelew Airport as flights into Puerto Madryn are restricted as a result of environmental concerns.

Geography Puerto Madryn is situated in Chubut on the Golfo Nuevo, which is formed by the Valdés Peninsula and Punta Ninfas. Puerto Madryn features a cold desert climate (Köppen BWk), with an annual precipitation of between 150 and 200 mm (6" to 8").

History The town was founded on 28 July 1865, when 150 Welsh immigrants arriving aboard the clipper Mimosa named the natural port Porth Madryn in honour of Sir Love Jones-Parry, whose estate in Wales was called Madryn after the Welsh name for Saint Materiana. Conditions were difficult and the settlers had to dig irrigation ditches for their first crops.

The settlement grew as a result of the building of the Central Chubut Railway by Welsh, Spanish, and Italian immigrants. This line, opened in 1889, linked the town to Trelew via the lower Chubut River valley.

Puerto Madryn was the port to which Argentine prisoners of war captured in the Falklands Islands during the 1982 war were repatriated on the vessels SS Canberra MV St. Edmund and MV Norland, which sailed from Port Stanley on 18 June 1982.