My flight from Puerto Iguazu to my current stop of Córdoba was quick and painless, though the change in weather was another brutal shock to the system. The hot humidity of Iguazu was suddenly cold again, even colder than Buenos Aires. Luckily, as the days wore on it warmed up a bit, but the first couple of days took some getting used to. Anyway, the city of Córdoba was founded in 1573 by this guy, Jeronimo Luis de Cabrera. I’ve never heard of him and he’s only mentioned in this one small spot behind Córdoba’s cathedral. Respect!

Córdoba is known as Argentina’s second city. It’s technically the third largest city, but the number two is actually attached to Buenos Aires, so I don’t know how they get away with that. Whatever! To me, Córdoba seems much more compact and sedate than Buenos Aires. The center of activity is of course named after our familiar friend, Plaza San Martín.

Córdoba also has it’s own Cabildo. The first structure was built here in 1588, but what you see here today was completed in 1786. There was supposed to be a big national history museum inside, but there really wasn’t much in there. Going inside did give me the opportunity to at least see it though.

Right next door is Córdoba’s Cathedral. Building began in 1582 and it went through various stages over a few hundred years. Even though it was in service as a church before, it wasn’t officially consecrated until 1706. In any case, this is oldest intact and functional colonial building in all of Argentina. I think that’s pretty impressive!

Here’s the Cabildo and the Cathedral together in all their glory. I took this picture on Sunday when the whole city was a giant ghost town. It was just me and the pigeons on the streets. I thought I was missing something, but nope, it was just an ordinary Córdoba Sunday.

Córdoba is perhaps best known as the home of South America’s oldest university, founded by the Jesuits in 1613. It’s still one of Argentina’s most prominent universities to this day and the old buildings take up a couple of city blocks. It’s called Manzana Jesuitica, though I can’t figure out where that phrase actually comes from. To my barely elementary Spanish mind it means Apple Jesus. Anyway, for me the best part were the few small museums spread around the complex.

At the main history museum in the Jesuit library there were hundreds and hundreds of really old volumes, but probably the most important in the place was this 10 volume, 16th century Bible translated into seven languages. There were also some letters and manuscripts from Argentina’s revolutionary period, like the one below written and signed by General Jose de San Martín himself. In it he describes winning the battle of Chacabuco, which pretty much solidified Chile’s independence.

Attached to the Manzana Jesuitica is the Iglesia Compañía de Jesús, the oldest working Jesuit church in the country.

I was pretty excited about seeing the Paleontology Museum, even though it turned out to be a lot smaller than I expected. There was still some good stuff in there worth checking out though.

The rest of my time in Córdoba was spent making day trips to some of the Estancia’s established by the Jesuits. They were set up as primarily agricultural centers to support the university. Each one was pretty fascinating in its own right. First up was Alta Gracia to the south.

Alta Gracia was first established in 1588 and donated to the Jesuits sometime in the 17th century. Inside I found this Bible printed in 1770. It’s amazing that it’s still in such good condition.

Alta Gracia is actually a pretty nice little town. They have a cool clock tower which sits on what is thought to be the oldest man made lake in the Americas, made by, you guessed it, the Jesuits.

Taking a little detour from the Jesuits for a minute, Alta Gracia is also famous as the boyhood home of Ernesto Che Guevara. I’m not a huge fan of his political ideas and exploits, but this is a pretty interesting little piece of history.

The house where he grew up is now a small museum right in the middle of some very peaceful suburbs. All of his later exploits aside, the man had a super interesting early life. He’s best known for his trips all over South and Central America. His last trip was on a motorcycle which landed him in Mexico where he met Fidel Castro. But his first trip around South America was on the bike seen below with just a small motor attached. I can’t even imagine! There were pics of his travels all over the walls too. I found it pretty interesting.

North of Córdoba were three other Estancias. First was the somewhat remote Santa Catalina. This one ended up being my favorite. It was established in 1622, but most of this was built in the mid 18th century. The place looks a lot smaller from the outside, that church is huge! As far as I know this is the only one that’s privately owned now as well.

As a bonus, the caretaker told me that these paintings were all originals from the 18th century too. There were at least seven or eight of them in there.

These places are extremely beautiful. I think the only disturbing part about them is that they utilized a lot of slave labor. That part seems to be downplayed a little bit.

A bit south from Santa Catalina in the town of Jesús María, is this Estancia of the same name. The Jesuits bought the land in 1618 for 8000 pesos, which comes to about 5 dollars today.

The best part of Jesús María was the fantastic collection of pre-hispanic artifacts. It was totally unexpected and a pleasant surprise.

Finally, at the far south end of Jesús María is the much smaller Estancia Jesuitica Caroya. This was apparently the first of the Jesuit Estancias, set up in 1616 to be a sort of country house. Later, it was used as a summer getaway for students of the university. And later still, during Argentina’s revolutionary years, it was a bladed weapons factory.

Well, Córdoba turned out to be a much more relaxed stop than I originally thought it would be. The museums were smaller than expected and a couple of things that I thought would take a full day only took a half day. It was still a worthwhile stop though. My last day I headed back to the airport to rent another car for this next leg of my journey, but I’ll get to that in the next post…