So, Salta

As I mentioned in my last post about Mendoza, my flight out of there left at a quarter to six in the evening, or is that late afternoon? The point is, I didn’t get to my hotel in Salta, Argentina, where I am now, until close to 8:00. It was already dark, so I didn’t get to see much of Salta then. Hence, I didn’t have anything to say about it in these pages then.

(My iPhone wanted to make “Salta” “Santa.” I didn’t see much of Santa either.)

My hotel is in central Salta, kitty-corner to the main square, Plaza 9 de Julio. I walked a little in the neighbourhood this morning. Most (all?) of the streets in this old part of Salta are one-way and would barely fit two lanes of traffic. They don’t have as much traffic, noise, and aggravation as typical big-city streets.

Salta also has a few blocks of a pedestrianized shopping street. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again here, and I’ll probably repeat it in the future: I love most pedestrianized streets. Everything is so much more pleasant without cars droning by.

Some of the architecture in central Salta is, I won’t say spectacular, but beautiful and sometimes just handsome. Most of the buildings are appealing in their own way. And none of it is ugly, at least as far as I saw this morning.

Now that I’ve had a chance to see some of Salta in the daylight, I find it quite charming.

Plaza 9 de Julio

The square is an oasis in an area not particularly in need of an oasis. Salta doesn’t have the ubiquitous tree-lined streets that Mendoza has. Nevertheless, as suggested above, the streets around and near Plaza 9 de Julio are enjoyable. Plaza 9 de Julio is the jewel in the crown,

The square has lots of trees, a gazebo, a fountain, and a couple of statues. There are also several benches, but they are of a design similar, or maybe identical, to the ones I whined about yesterday when I talked about Parque General San Martin on Mendoza. That is to say, they’re too low. So, that’s one drawback.

Different benches in the square get shade at different times. I have been in Plaza 9 de Julio a couple of times so far. I don’t know which god you have to bribe to get a spot on a bench in the shade, but that god is getting rich. Spots on benches in full sunlight were easy to come by.

At the centre of the square, there’s an equestrian statue on a high pedestal, with statues of women in various poses surrounding it on a lower, broader pedestal.

The monument dominates Plaza 9 de Julio, and it’s a favourite with pigeons. When I was there, a densely populated row of pigeons arrayed themselves along the top of the horse and rider. More pigeons perched atop each of the statues of women.

I think the pigeons were constipated. The monument bore no white blotches. There are signs posted in the square which, based on the accompanying pictogram, I assume prohibit the feeding of the pigeons. I approve of this message. In particular, I hope people don’t feed them laxatives.

Because it is so close to my hotel, Plaza 9 de Julio is the first place I went to in the morning. Maybe they clean the monument every night, and it hadn’t yet been soiled. Because of the proximity to my hotel, I’ll no doubt pass through the square again later. I’ll let you know if it’s turned white by then.

Catedral Basílica de Salta

Across the street from one side of Plaza 9 de Julio sits Catedral Basílica de Salta, Salta’s cathedral.

The exterior is pink and beige. It has two two-tiered, short towers on either side of the front of the cathedral. There’s also another facade element with a clover-leaf-shaped (four-leaf clover) window between the two towers.

There are three stately, arched entryways into the sanctuary.

The cathedral has a copula, but you can’t see it when looking head-on at it from the street, but you can if you walk around to the side.

I found the exterior very enchanting in a fairytale-building sort of way.

Inside, the cathedral induces a soaring feeling, as many grand cathedrals do.

I found the interior to be subtly beautiful. In addition to the central nave, there are lovely aisles on either side of the nave. Both of the side aisles were of the same design, and they were quite different from the central nave.

The columns in the central nave have pink stone, probably marble, on their front and elegantly painted vertical decorations on their side. The colours of those decorations span a palette of gold and dark yellows, oranges, greens, and mauve. (I’m not very good at naming colours. I’ll try to remember to post a picture of one of the decorated columns.)

There are small, attractive stained glass windows close to the ceiling along the side walls, as well as around the base of the cupola.

All in all, I thought it was a splendid cathedral.

Basílica Menor y Convento San Francisco

One good church deserves another. One of my guidebooks gives the Basílica Menor y Convento San Francisco a star. It doesn’t award more than one star to any sight, as far as I’ve seen. It’s either one star or no stars. And it’s very parsimonious in its bestowing of those stars. (It gives a star to one other attraction in Salta, which I expect to see tomorrow. In many cities and towns, it doesn’t give any stars to any attractions.)

That guidebook tells me there was a sanctuary built on the site in 1625. It was replaced (the guidebook doesn’t say why) in 1674. Fire destroyed the second church, and it was replaced with the current one in 1882.

The front of the Basílica Menor y Convento San Francisco sports a lot of columns and again has three arched entryways. There are also three arched windows above those entryways. A tiered and multi-columned bell tower stands beside it, and its height dominates the basilica.

Inside, it has a single-aisle nave. I found the interior rather plain for something that deigns to call itself a basilica rather than just a church.

The other of my guidebooks tells me that there’s a lovely cloistered garden that can be accessed only by a tour. The guidebook said there are English language tours.

I didn’t see any signs for tours, so I went into the attached church museum office and asked the person behind the desk if she spoke English. “No.”

As I’ve done many, many times on this trip, I pulled out Google Translate and used that to ask her if there were English language tours. “No.” So, no cloistered garden for me.

I didn’t think of it until just now as I’m typing this up, but I shouldn’t have asked her about the tour. I should have asked her whether I could go to the cloister garden. That’s what I most wanted to see.

When I was in the church, I saw a door that was open off to the side of the sanctuary, but there was a locked gate behind it. It looked like there was a garden back there, but I didn’t see a cloister. Then again, the door didn’t afford me a wide view. So, maybe I did see a wee bit of the cloister garden. And maybe I didn’t.

That’s enough for this morning. Stay tuned for this afternoon’s post.