MANZANA JESUITICA

The construction of this building began in 1640 and was completed in 1671. It is exceptional in the eyes of the country's history. Since 2000, it has been listed, along with the other five Jesuit estancias in the area around Cordoba, as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. As for the one in Buenos Aires, the whole deserves a visit. In addition to a maze of corridors and patios, don't miss the visit to the church, which backs onto the main buildings: Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús. Don't forget to look up at the roof, built like the upside down hull of a boat.

History. The Jesuits arrived in Córdoba on March 20, 1599 and began their vast campaign of evangelization. According to their principles, they established the foundations of a university (in 1622, now the oldest in the country) and operated the first printing works in the Vice-Regal District of the River Plate. La Manzana (block of houses) thus concentrates all the buildings built by the Jesuits: the Colegio Máximo (1610), the church (built in 1640, it is the oldest in the country), the Colegio Monserrat (transferred to its current location in 1782), the Colegio de las Huérfanas or San Alberto Museum (the first educational place in the region for women with a well preserved colonial part). Córdoba was not just any city for the Order: it was the capital of the Great Province of Paraguay. After the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, the buildings were assigned to the Franciscans, before the return of the Society of Jesus in 1853.