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Colonia del Sacramento (ROU)
1. Cultural patrimony of the Humanity (Berlin Dec 8, 1995)
Been founded in 1680 by the Master of Field Manuel de Lobo, it was the first
Portuguese establishment in the River Plate. Separated from Buenos Aires only by the Río de la Plata and a hundred miles distant from Montevideo, Colonia transports us more than 300 years ago just by walking in the paved little streets of the Historical Neighborhood that conserve stone houses with tiles roofs exactly in the way they were built in the time of the colony. As Colonia was strategically located for the River Plate domain, these houses were also, since the city foundation, silent witness of bloody fights between Portuguese and Spaniards.The longest period of Portuguese dominance extended from 1715 to 1777 and it was in these years that Colonia showed its splendor to the world. The first play of the Río de la Plata was performed there and the Río de la Plata first artisans were born in Colonia del Sacramento.
The city has a magic charm in the evening when little yellow street lamps that hang in the font door of the houses are lighted, given a romantic and nostalgic touch to the famous Alley of the Sighs, which has gavels full of flowers adorning the windows. Closely to it, you can find the Bastion of San Miguel and the Lighthouse. The last building was erected on the foundations of the Franciscan Convent of 1683 (burned).
To visit the historical neighborhood, you will cross the drawbridge and look at the Door of the Citadel where one can still see the Portuguese shield and its 315 years' stoic fight against the waste of the time. At the same time, you will be able to walk on the one yard thick old wall. A few steps from there, you can visit the Portuguese Museum showing a collection of tiles of the Portuguese conquest, a series of weapons, flags, banners, two games of room of Joao V in jacaranda, old trunks,
etc. The Spanish Museum is also worth to see, with helmets and swords, a collection of coins and plates and some Spanish ceramics.The Paleontological Museum preserve five gliptodonte armors and their paws; the tail and armor of an armadillo of almost two million years of antiquity and the femur of a megaterio. In the Native Museum we will find remains of the utensils of the charrúas' Indians: boleadoras, mortars, arrow tips, and knives.
While we keep strolling without hurry, the golden threads of the sun knit poetry, rolling on the river and the colorless roofs of the old Colonia.
The Fist Church, originally of adobe (straw and mud) was tragically destroyed in the first war action to be reconstructed again in 1731 in Tuscan style, being from then several times changed.
If we walk for the Christopher Columbus riverwalk, we will arrive to the Real of San Carlos, old military camp, where San Benito's Chapel's was built in 1761 . In the beginning of the XX Century, an Argentinean travel company founded the Mihanovich Complex, composed by a square of Bulls of Moorish architecture (it was operating only two years because the bulls riding was prohibited by the national government), the Fronton of Ball (one of the biggest from South America) and the Great Hotel Casino that never was finished.
Today Colonia is a beautiful tourist place. Its simplicity and the warm welcome gives to the tourist peace and alive history. In December 8, l995, Colonia del Sacramento was declared Cultural Patrimony of the Humanity, as Venice or Machu Pichu.
The city can be explored in one day but to do a complete exploration it is better to take two days and you can enjoy then the lovely sight of the old village at night, sleeping in the welcoming colonial hotels, where comfort and hidden histories are mixed in stone walls and colonial patios. The weekends are full of tourists, especially Argentineans, because they only have to cross the river to pass from the activity of Buenos Aires to this oasis of peace.
Colonia is also frequented by film directors and its little irregular streets are used to revive secrets stories of love in the cinema. Also, any visit to Colonia could be good to delight with excellent Creole and French food. Some restaurants are "Los Faroles (the Lights) Grocery", which has a many specialities, including loin "los Faroles", sablé of milk's sweet, a tradition of almost 20 years and, if it were Tuesdays (in which case "Los Faroles" is closed) you can be delighted savoring a Portuguese matambre in Don Pedro Restaurant contemplating the Alley of the Sighs. For French cuisine the best is the Market Tunnel Restaurant.