It is sometimes called Ciudad de María (City of Mary) due to a series of Marian apparitions that led to the erection of the Sanctuary in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolás that began during the 1980s and were approved by Bishop Cardelli of the diocese as "worthy of belief" in 2016.

The closeness to the border between Buenos Aires and two other large provinces made the city a natural stage for the struggle between federalist and Unitarians forces in mid-19th century.

Its main accesses are in the north–south axis: the Rosario-Buenos Aires Highway, and the Nuevo Central Argentino railroad.

It is also home of the San Nicolás Regional Faculty, a branch of the National Technological University (UTN).

There are a variety cultural institutions in the city, though the most important one is perhaps the Rafael de Aguiar Municipal Theatre, founded on August 10, 1908, and designed as a smaller model of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.