Sights

Plaza 9 de Julio and around

In just a few hours you can get a feel for the city. The heart is the pleasant Plaza 9 de Julio, richly planted with wonderful tall palm trees, orange trees and surrounded by colonial- style buildings. The whole area has been spruced up and three sides of it are now pedestrianized, with cafés where you can sit and watch teenagers hanging out on the plaza and smart businessmen having their shoes shined. There's an impressive Cabildobuilt in 1783, one of the few to be found intact in the whole country, and behind its pleasingly uneven arches is an impressive museum, the Museo Histórico del Norte. In a series of rooms around two open courtyards; the collection charts the region's history from pre-Hispanic times, with particularly good displays on the Wars of Independence and on Güemes leading the gauchos to victory. Upstairs, among some lovely religious art, is a fine golden 18th-century pulpit and some Cuzco school paintings, while outside are carriages and an ancient wine press. Fascinating and informative.

On the north side of the plaza, is the lovely cathedral, built 1858-1878, now strangely painted pastel pink, and open mornings and evenings so that you can admire a huge baroque altar (1807) and the images of the Cristo del Milagro and of the Virgin Mary. These are central to Salta's beliefs and psyche, and the focus of Salta's biggest mass ritual. In 1692 Jesuit priests were amazed to discover that two statues, of Christ and the Virgin of Rosario, had survived a severe earthquake intact. During a series of tremors they paraded them through the streets in procession, and the following day, the 14 September, the tremors stopped. The Milagro(miracle) is now the biggest event of Salta's year, when thousands of pilgrims walk to the city from hundreds of kilometres away.

Ironically, these images are now just a stone's throw from the precious beings involved in the Incas' attempts to avert earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The Niños de Llullaillaco, a sacred burial unearthed by a National Geographic expedition in 1999, are now housed in the Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña (MAAM)  www.maam.org.ar, Controversially, MAAM now has on show the famous mummified remains of sacrificial children. You can also see many of the other fabulous objects found in the burial, well displayed in this museum, with texts in English and a guided tour included in the entry price. The guides are trained by resident archaeologist Christian Vitry, and there's a fine library too.

The interesting Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, www.salta.gov.ar/mac is also worth a look.

A block west of the Cabildo, on one of the main pedestrian streets, are a couple of interesting museums housed in colonial mansions. The Casa Leguizamón, Caseros y Florida, has interesting architecture and the Casa Arias Rengel, next door, now houses the Museo de Bellas Artes, which has the city's finest collection of paintings, including superb Cuzqueño school works and small exhibitions of Salteño painters and sculptors.

The Museo de la Ciudad'Casa de Hernández, www.museociudadsalta.gov.ar, is housed in a fine 18th-century mansion with a collection of old furniture, musical instruments and dull portraits, but includes a marvellous painting of writer Güemes.

The Iglesia San Francisco (1796), is one of the city's landmarks, with its magnificent plum coloured façade ornately decorated with white and golden stucco scrolls, and its elegant tower (1882) rising above the low city skyline. The interior is relatively plain, but there are some remarkable statues to admire, such as the rather too realistic San Sebastián. Two blocks further east is the Convento de San Bernardo, built in colonial style in 1846, with an exquisitely carved wooden door dating from 1762. You can't enter the convent as it's still the home to nuns, but they'll open up the little shop for you, with a little collection of quaint handicrafts. 

Visit the Parque San Martín, where you'll find the Museo de Ciencias Naturales, with various stuffed animals. It's not a particularly elaborate park, but there's a boating lake, and from here you can take the teleférico (cable car) up to Cerro San Bernardo (1458 m), whose forested ridge looms over the east of the city centre. The top of the hill can be climbed in 45 minutes by a steep path (which starts beside the Museo Antropológico). At the top there are lovely gardens, and a great café with deck chairs and fabulous views.

At the base of the hill, is an impressive statue of General Güemes by Victor Gariño. His gaucho troops repelled seven powerful Spanish invasions from Bolivia between 1814 and 1821. The nearby Museo Antropológico-Juan M Leguizamón www.antropologico.gov.ar, makes a good introduction to the pre-Hispanic cultures of the region. It has a superb collection of anthropomorphic ceramics and beautifully painted funerary urns. There's also an exhibition on high-altitude burial grounds, complete with mummies, objects found at the ancient ruins of Tastil and, most mysteriously, skulls flattened during the owner's life by wearing boards to squash the head (thought to confer higher intelligence).