The occurrence of Montevideo’s Rambla on Uruguay’s Tentative List is an easy object of ridicule – haven’t we all seen Ramblas/Corniches/Promenades before at various places around the world? The List may even have enough already of them to warrant a (new) connection, depending on the criteria used: the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, Marine Drive in Mumbai (partly inscribed), the pedestrian-only Paseo del Morro in San Juan and the Terrasse Dufferin in Quebec are candidates. Havana’s Malecon I believe is outside of the core zone.

The Rambla of Montevideo stands out for two reasons: it is possibly the longest of them all (22km) and it is devoid of ornamentation. The Rambla was designed as a coastal bypass during the time the number of automobiles on the road surged (1920s) and as a means to beautify the city. ‘Ugly’, poor neighbourhoods had to go. “Stripping of ornaments, the regularity of the forms, the harmony of the proportions” were essential to the modernist design of the Rambla.

I walked some 4km of the part that is known as the Rambla Sur. It felt longer as there was no shade, and there were hardly any other people present in the early afternoon. Ramblas generally are better enjoyed approaching sunset. There indeed is no ornamentation – just a wide sidewalk for cyclists and pedestrians, bordered on the land side by a multi-lane road and on the riverside by a low wall that can be used as a bench. This wall, “a balcony overlooking the sea”, is made of ‘classy’ pink granite and uniform in design all the way.

I don’t see this becoming a WHS on its own, but it could be combined with that other Montevideo TWHS about early 20th-century modernist architecture. It was a product of the same period and the same wish to create recreational areas for the population as the Parque Batlle y Ordoñez.