Colonia del Sacramento

Colonia del Sacramento lies in a strategic position and therefore stands out for its fusion of cultural tradions, which can be seen in the city's layout and buildings.

Sacramento was founded by the Portuguese in 1680, and after several struggles was incorporated in the Spanish empire from 1777. It held a strategic position at the Rio de la Plata for riches Peruvian mines and agriculture in Brazil and Argentina.

The city represents more than 3 centuries of Portuguese, Spanish and Uruguayan history. Its urban plan has an organic form, not the common Latin checkerboard layout, and holds a wide range of historic buildings.


Year Decision Comments
1995 Inscribed Reasons for inscription

Reviews

John Booth (New Zealand):
After the noise and pollution of Buenos Aires across the river, Colonia was a breath of fresh air. So laid back and relaxing. On the wide, tree-lined streets even the motor vehicles were in keeping with the surrounding buildings; not a car to be seen built after 1950!

We went across the river on an early ferry, and it was like entering a ghost town. But around 11am the locals began to appear, and very friendly they were too.

We loved the colourful old Portuguese cottages around the Plaza Mayor, and the pinted blue tiles that appeared everywhere.
 
():
Colonia was WONDERFUL. Eating outside in the quaint, warm and friendly cafes was an experience we shall never forget. Our children (ages 6 & 12) loved Colonia as much as we did and they're used to Disney World-type trips. What a beautiful part of the world! We will someday return for a much longer visit. Thank you for your webpage and all the photos.
 
Maarten Vermeulen (Holland):
Just surfing through the site, while working in Indonesia, I see another review of Paul Tanner. Again he wonders if inscription is justified just like the one of Caves of the Aggtelek and Slovak Karst. Maybe Paul is a bit too critical, I've been in Colonia del Sacramento as well and must say the atmosphere felt just good, very good, feeling back in time even when life was more relaxed. Good memories I have of CdS.
Date posted: March 2006
Paul Tanner (UK):
Uruguay possesses but a single WHS :- at Colonia Del Sacramento on the banks of the River Plate. We were journeying from Buenos Aires to Iguassu and didn’t want to miss such a close new (for us) country and another WHS so took an indirect route by hydrofoil across the Plate and then by bus through the rolling pastures of Uruguay to cross back into Argentina at the Salto-Concordia frontier.

On arriving at Colonia the vast majority of hydrofoil passengers jumped onto waiting busses and continued to Montevideo. We found ourselves in a small town with plenty of hotels and restaurants and obviously heavily dependent on serving Porteno tourists.

The town is pleasant enough with a number of cobbled streets bounded by low houses in colonial style together with a few ruins in the form of town walls/gates overlooking the River Plate (it is said that the lighthouse is the only “high building” -photo). The town is supposed to reflect in its layout and architecture its origins as the most southerly Portuguese colonial settlement but I can’t say that this aspect was particularly noticeable to us. It was originally founded in 1680 and changed hands a few times before its final incorporation into the Spanish empire in 1777.

It was a pleasant stop-over but whether the town really justifies inscription is another matter. I personally wasn’t aware of the extent to which the Portuguese attempted to activate the Treaty of Tordesillas and grasp land that far south. I guess to Uruguayans the place has a far greater importance than to us Anglo Saxons relatively ignorant of Latin American history! As the location where a part of the physical and cultural boundary between the 2 Iberian colonial powers was worked out I suppose it has a historical significance which should be recognised.
 


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