Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

The Legacy of an Historic Shuttle


El Almacen
A traditional Cologne shop displays small cooperage products on its doorstep
precious shadow
Client enjoys the peace of the city in one of its many creative terraces.
classic in red
Calhambeque parked outside a traditional house in Colonia del Sacramento.
Parisian lantern
An old lantern dyes a corner near the lighthouse in Colonia del Sacramento yellow.
Mate Ritual
Boyfriends share the cologne sun and mate tea, an unavoidable Uruguayan habit.
top of the lighthouse
Couple talk at the top of the lighthouse in Colonia del Sacramento.
Yellow Lamp
Bright yellow lantern in a historic corner of Colonia del Sacramento.
Pastry
An old pastry shop leaning against a much older façade of the square, once Portuguese, sometimes Spanish, now Uruguayan
Silver Fishing
Fishermen create a silhouette with the sun west of the Rio de la Plata.
Input
Visitors walk along the bridge that leads to the main entrance to the walled city.
street to Rio
A typical street, based on an irregular sidewalk made of large stones and equipped with yellow lamps.
Anil street, scarlet jalopy
Colonial city visitors examine an indigo-hued street featuring an old classic-era car
Classics Duel
Vintage cars add color to a street in Colonia del Sacramento.
The founding of Colónia do Sacramento by the Portuguese generated recurrent conflicts with their spanish rivals. Until 1828, this fortified square, now sedative, changed sides again and again.

As the afternoon draws to a close, it becomes more obvious why the vast expanse of water we contemplate was long ago named the Rio da Prata.

Sitting on one of the low walls of the great fortification, we can enjoy the phenomenon taking over the estuary and the soul of the Uruguayans who populate its banks.

The sky has been clean for days. It displays the same blue that inspired the Uruguayan flag and that of the neighboring Argentine nation, a few kilometers across the basin.

Groups of friends occupy rocky ledges and live with fishing rods at the ready. Others ventured into the immensity of brackish water.

We see a small boat with three fishermen on board. They anchor the vessel in the broad beam of sunlight. At that precise moment, their figures block the reflection of the surface and produce a curious mobile silhouette.

Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

Fishermen create a silhouette with the sun west of the Rio de la Plata.

Colonia do Sacramento and its twenty-five thousand inhabitants remain sedated by the secluded and hedonistic life of the city, we dare to think that it is a kind of compensation for the town's military past.

The Foundation in an All-Disputed Territory

The New Colony of the Blessed Sacrament – ​​its original name – was the first European colony in present-day Uruguayan territory. The XNUMXth century came to an end. Merchants in Rio de Janeiro were more eager than ever to do business with rival colonies in the province of Rio del Plata, especially Buenos Aires.

Determined to support his efforts, Field Master Manuel de Lobo organized an expedition and sailed to the Rio da Prata. In January 1680, he initiated the Portuguese presence in this region, which Coroa Lusa considered to be located east of the line formed by the Treaty of Tordesilhas, a treaty that had long been involved in an irresolvable controversy.

Aware of the presence of rivals, the Spaniards mobilized troops from Peru, from present-day Argentina, from Paraguay. At Jesuit Missions of the Uruguay River, alone, sent around three thousand indigenous people, on foot and on horseback.

In the opposite camp, Manuel Lobo also called for reinforcements. The vessels that transported them sank at the entrance to the Rio da Prata. The imbalance of forces became obvious.

Seven months after its establishment, Colonia do Sacramento was captured. The Spanish changed its name to Fuerte del Rosario. Manuel Lobo was taken prisoner in Buenos Aires, where he died three years later. Then began a long alternation of ownership that gave the square its peculiar military architecture.

Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

Visitors walk along the bridge that leads to the main entrance to the walled city.

A Fortress That Now Encloses An Entire City

As soon as we pass the moat, on a huge wooden bridge, Colónia do Sacramento proves to be a place originally made with little or no concern for comfort.

Street after street, alley after alley, we retain the feeling of the imminence of a twisted foot, so irregular are the stones that form its black sidewalk, between reinforced walls and imposing bastions.

Centuries passed. Despite alternating, the presence of political, military and religious leaders from the contending nations became longer and justified buildings with other precautions.

In recent times, Uruguay has put this heritage to good use. Raised for fortification the status of UNESCO World Heritage.

Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

A typical street, based on an irregular sidewalk made of large stones and equipped with yellow lamps.

When we walk through the geometrical layout, surrounded by sycamore trees, we find that many of the buildings have been converted into museums, restaurants, bars and shops. They have colorful and elegant decorations in common. At night, they are illuminated by Parisian-style lamps like those that still equip Lisbon's historic areas.

The urban identity of Colónia do Sacramento was maintained.

And the court in the capital wasted no time in claiming ownership of his latest colony. A year after the Spanish conquest, Colónia do Sacramento received the signing of the provisional treaty that established its return to Portugal.

The Commercial Mastery of Residents, With Possible Historical Foundations

It also made official the condemnation of the Spanish attack and the sanction of the governor and captain general of the province of Rio da Prata, José de Garro. In 1701, Portugal and Spain signed, still in Lisbon, the treaty that established the first of several definitive but ephemeral transfers to Portugal.

we leave the warehouses, bodegas and pulperies marveling at its beauty and originality. We conjectured that the colonial people's appetite for business could be rooted in the entrepreneurial spirit of their predecessors. History seems to support the theory.

Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

A traditional Cologne shop displays small cooperage products on its doorstep

The Luso-Hispanic agreement forbade the square's trade with the surrounding Spanish colonies. But, in the middle of the XNUMXth century, Colónia do Sacramento had already been converted into a Portuguese and British contraband entrepot, betting on profiting from the supply of Hispanic towns.

The damage to the Spanish Crown proved to be such that Felipe V commissioned the governor of Buenos Aires to build a fortification in Montevideo, with the ultimate aim of controlling illegal trade.

The Colony of Sacramento that Forced the Construction of Montevideo

This fortification originated the capital of Uruguay. And Montevideo is the starting point for most of Cologne's national visitors, usually in escapes for rest and leisure.

Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

Vintage cars add color to a street in Colonia del Sacramento.

We left a street embellished by two gaudy clunkers. A few dozen meters further on, we passed a couple of lovers. They are installed almost acrobatically on a narrow wall.

And share a bulb of mate tea, taking care of the inevitable supplement of hot water in a complementary term.

We got into conversation. We were quick to confirm their notorious well-being: “because they know how it is” we are told with a strong conversion of the ipsilons and double “they” into “jotas”, conventional in the Castilian accent of the area: “a Uruguayan without mate is not a real Uruguayan. Here in Cologne they take it very seriously. Amazing place, isn't it? We love coming here. Are they Portuguese? Ah, very well, thank you so much for remembering to come here and found this!”

Mate, Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

Boyfriends share the cologne sun and mate tea, an unavoidable Uruguayan habit.

The dialogue goes on. As is to be expected, it also comes to the theme of the permanent coming and going of the fortress between Portugal and Spain. An oscillation that continued into the XNUMXth century.

The Paris Treaty and Detracted with and the Genesis of the Uruguayan Nation

In 1750, the Treaty of Madrid stipulated that the colony should return to the Hispanic yoke, against the ceding of the “Seven pueblos de las Missions”, in the current Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. With the entry of Spain into the Seven Years' War, talks were interrupted.

Spain occupied Colonia del Sacramento. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris which came to establish a new return to Portugal.

In 1777, Charles III decided to reverse the Treaty of Paris. He sent a new expedition to Rio de la Plata and reconquered Colonia.

Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

An old lantern dyes a corner near the lighthouse in Colonia del Sacramento yellow.

Thirty years later, the British took the place from the Spaniards. As if that wasn't enough, they helped to foment the first independence notions that inspired the liberation movement in the Eastern Province.

In 1818, following the Portuguese-Brazilian invasion, 40 years after having lost it for the last time, Portugal reoccupied Colónia do Sacramento.

To finally put an end to the endless sequel, in 1828, the fortress became part of the Oriental State of Uruguay, the embryonic state of today's Uruguay.

Pueblos del Sur, Venezuela

Behind the Venezuela Andes. Fiesta Time.

In 1619, the authorities of Mérida dictated the settlement of the surrounding territory. The order resulted in 19 remote villages that we found dedicated to commemorations with caretos and local pauliteiros.
Ilha de Mozambique, Mozambique  

The Island of Ali Musa Bin Bique. Pardon... of Mozambique

With the arrival of Vasco da Gama in the extreme south-east of Africa, the Portuguese took over an island that had previously been ruled by an Arab emir, who ended up misrepresenting the name. The emir lost his territory and office. Mozambique - the molded name - remains on the resplendent island where it all began and also baptized the nation that Portuguese colonization ended up forming.
Ibo Island, Mozambique

Island of a Gone Mozambique

It was fortified in 1791 by the Portuguese who expelled the Arabs from the Quirimbas and seized their trade routes. It became the 2nd Portuguese outpost on the east coast of Africa and later the capital of the province of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. With the end of the slave trade at the turn of the XNUMXth century and the passage from the capital to Porto Amélia, Ibo Island found itself in the fascinating backwater in which it is located.
Goa, India

The Last Gasp of the Goan Portugality

The prominent city of Goa already justified the title of “rome of the east” when, in the middle of the XNUMXth century, epidemics of malaria and cholera led to its abandonment. The New Goa (Pangim) for which it was exchanged became the administrative seat of Portuguese India but was annexed by the Indian Union of post-independence. In both, time and neglect are ailments that now make the Portuguese colonial legacy wither.
Pirenópolis, Brazil

A Polis in the South American Pyrenees

Mines of Nossa Senhora do Rosário da Meia Ponte were erected by Portuguese pioneers, in the peak of the Gold Cycle. Out of nostalgia, probably Catalan emigrants called the mountains around the Pyrenees. In 1890, already in an era of independence and countless Hellenizations of its cities, Brazilians named this colonial city Pirenópolis.
Chandor, Goa, India

A True Goan-Portuguese House

A mansion with Portuguese architectural influence, Casa Menezes Bragança, stands out from the houses of Chandor, in Goa. It forms a legacy of one of the most powerful families in the former province. Both from its rise in a strategic alliance with the Portuguese administration and from the later Goan nationalism.
Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

The Desired City

Many treasures passed through Cartagena before being handed over to the Spanish Crown - more so than the pirates who tried to plunder them. Today, the walls protect a majestic city always ready to "rumbear".
Goiás Velho, Brazil

A Gold Rush Legacy

Two centuries after the heyday of prospecting, lost in time and in the vastness of the Central Plateau, Goiás esteems its admirable colonial architecture, the surprising wealth that remains to be discovered there.
Sheets of Bahia, Brazil

Lençóis da Bahia: not Even Diamonds Are Forever

In the XNUMXth century, Lençóis became the world's largest supplier of diamonds. But the gem trade did not last as expected. Today, the colonial architecture that he inherited is his most precious possession.
San Ignacio Mini, Argentina

The Impossible Jesuit Missions of San Ignacio Mini

In the century. In the XNUMXth century, the Jesuits expanded a religious domain in the heart of South America by converting the Guarani Indians into Jesuit missions. But the Iberian Crowns ruined the tropical utopia of the Society of Jesus.
Residents walk along the trail that runs through plantations above the UP4
City
Gurué, Mozambique, Part 1

Through the Mozambican Lands of Tea

The Portuguese founded Gurué in the 1930th century and, from XNUMX onwards, flooded it with camellia sinensis the foothills of the Namuli Mountains. Later, they renamed it Vila Junqueiro, in honor of its main promoter. With the independence of Mozambique and the civil war, the town regressed. It continues to stand out for the lush green imposing mountains and teak landscapes.
Host Wezi points out something in the distance
Beaches
Cobue; Nkwichi Lodge, Mozambique

The Hidden Mozambique of the Creaking Sands

During a tour from the bottom to the top of Lake Malawi, we find ourselves on the island of Likoma, an hour by boat from Nkwichi Lodge, the solitary base of this inland coast of Mozambique. On the Mozambican side, the lake is known as Niassa. Whatever its name, there we discover some of the most stunning and unspoilt scenery in south-east Africa.
Lion, Elephants, PN Hwange, Zimbabwe
safari
PN Hwange, Zimbabwe

The Legacy of the Late Cecil Lion

On July 1, 2015, Walter Palmer, a dentist and trophy hunter from Minnesota killed Cecil, Zimbabwe's most famous lion. The slaughter generated a viral wave of outrage. As we saw in PN Hwange, nearly two years later, Cecil's descendants thrive.
Faithful in front of the gompa The gompa Kag Chode Thupten Samphel Ling.
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit 15th - Kagbeni, Nepal

At the Gates of the Former Kingdom of Upper Mustang

Before the 1992th century, Kagbeni was already a crossroads of trade routes at the confluence of two rivers and two mountain ranges, where medieval kings collected taxes. Today, it is part of the famous Annapurna Circuit. When hikers arrive, they know that, higher up, there is a domain that, until XNUMX, prohibited entry to outsiders.
Engravings, Karnak Temple, Luxor, Egypt
Architecture & Design
luxor, Egypt

From Luxor to Thebes: Journey to Ancient Egypt

Thebes was raised as the new supreme capital of the Egyptian Empire, the seat of Amon, the God of Gods. Modern Luxor inherited the Temple of Karnak and its sumptuousness. Between one and the other flow the sacred Nile and millennia of dazzling history.
Aventura
Boat Trips

For Those Becoming Internet Sick

Hop on and let yourself go on unmissable boat trips like the Philippine archipelago of Bacuit and the frozen sea of ​​the Finnish Gulf of Bothnia.
Tiredness in shades of green
Ceremonies and Festivities
Suzdal, Russia

The Suzdal Cucumber Celebrations

With summer and warm weather, the Russian city of Suzdal relaxes from its ancient religious orthodoxy. The old town is also famous for having the best cucumbers in the nation. When July arrives, it turns the newly harvested into a real festival.
gaudy courtship
Cities
Suzdal, Russia

Thousand Years of Old Fashioned Russia

It was a lavish capital when Moscow was just a rural hamlet. Along the way, it lost political relevance but accumulated the largest concentration of churches, monasteries and convents in the country of the tsars. Today, beneath its countless domes, Suzdal is as orthodox as it is monumental.
Lunch time
World Food

Gastronomy Without Borders or Prejudice

Each people, their recipes and delicacies. In certain cases, the same ones that delight entire nations repel many others. For those who travel the world, the most important ingredient is a very open mind.
Tombola, street bingo-Campeche, Mexico
Culture
Campeche, Mexico

A Bingo so playful that you play with puppets

On Friday nights, a group of ladies occupy tables at Independencia Park and bet on trifles. The tiniest prizes come out to them in combinations of cats, hearts, comets, maracas and other icons.
Reindeer Racing, Kings Cup, Inari, Finland
Sport
Inari, Finland

The Wackiest Race on the Top of the World

Finland's Lapps have been competing in the tow of their reindeer for centuries. In the final of the Kings Cup - Porokuninkuusajot - , they face each other at great speed, well above the Arctic Circle and well below zero.
Chiang Khong to Luang Prabang, Laos, Through the Mekong Below
Traveling
Chiang Khong - Luang Prabang, Laos

Slow Boat, Down the Mekong River

Laos' beauty and lower cost are good reasons to sail between Chiang Khong and Luang Prabang. But this long descent of the Mekong River can be as exhausting as it is picturesque.
Colonial Church of San Francisco de Assis, Taos, New Mexico, USA
Ethnic
Taos, USA

North America Ancestor of Taos

Traveling through New Mexico, we were dazzled by the two versions of Taos, that of the indigenous adobe hamlet of Taos Pueblo, one of the towns of the USA inhabited for longer and continuously. And that of Taos city that the Spanish conquerors bequeathed to the Mexico, Mexico gave in to United States and that a creative community of native descendants and migrated artists enhance and continue to praise.
View of Fa Island, Tonga, Last Polynesian Monarchy
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

Exotic Signs of Life

Towers of Puelba Cathedral illuminated during sunset
History
Puebla, Mexico

A City Filled with Faith at the Foot of the Volcano

Such was the impetus for Catholic proselytism at the founding of Puebla de Los Angeles in the 5426th century that some chroniclers reported a church there for every day of the year. Puebla has almost two hundred and ninety. In a baroque and majestic ex-colonial domain, the challenge of Popocatépetl (XNUMXm), Mexico's “smoking mountain”.
Mirador de La Peña, El Hierro, Canary Islands, Spain
Islands
El Hierro, Canary Islands

The Volcanic Rim of the Canaries and the Old World

Until Columbus arrived in the Americas, El Hierro was seen as the threshold of the known world and, for a time, the Meridian that delimited it. Half a millennium later, the last western island of the Canaries is teeming with exuberant volcanism.
Correspondence verification
Winter White
Rovaniemi, Finland

From the Finnish Lapland to the Arctic. A Visit to the Land of Santa

Fed up with waiting for the bearded old man to descend down the chimney, we reverse the story. We took advantage of a trip to Finnish Lapland and passed through its furtive home.
shadow vs light
Literature
Kyoto, Japan

The Kyoto Temple Reborn from the Ashes

The Golden Pavilion has been spared destruction several times throughout history, including that of US-dropped bombs, but it did not withstand the mental disturbance of Hayashi Yoken. When we admired him, he looked like never before.
Seljalandsfoss Escape
Nature
Iceland

The Island of Fire, Ice and Waterfalls

Europe's supreme cascade rushes into Iceland. But it's not the only one. On this boreal island, with constant rain or snow and in the midst of battle between volcanoes and glaciers, endless torrents crash.
Girl plays with leaves on the shore of the Great Lake at Catherine Palace
Autumn
Saint Petersburg, Russia

Golden Days Before the Storm

Aside from the political and military events precipitated by Russia, from mid-September onwards, autumn takes over the country. In previous years, when visiting Saint Petersburg, we witnessed how the cultural and northern capital was covered in a resplendent yellow-orange. A dazzling light that hardly matches the political and military gloom that had spread in the meantime.
Van at Jossingfjord, Magma Geopark, Norway
Natural Parks
Magma Geopark, Norway

A Somehow Lunar Norway

If we went back to the geological ends of time, we would find southwestern Norway filled with huge mountains and a burning magma that successive glaciers would shape. Scientists have found that the mineral that predominates there is more common on the Moon than on Earth. Several of the scenarios we explore in the region's vast Magma Geopark seem to be taken from our great natural satellite.
Entrance to Dunhuang Sand City, China
UNESCO World Heritage
Dunhuang, China

An Oasis in the China of the Sands

Thousands of kilometers west of Beijing, the Great Wall has its western end and the China and other. An unexpected splash of vegetable green breaks up the arid expanse all around. Announces Dunhuang, formerly crucial outpost on the Silk Road, today an intriguing city at the base of Asia's largest sand dunes.
now from above ladder, sorcerer of new zealand, Christchurch, new zealand
Characters
Christchurch, New Zealand

New Zealand's Cursed Wizard

Despite his notoriety in the antipodes, Ian Channell, the New Zealand sorcerer, failed to predict or prevent several earthquakes that struck Christchurch. At the age of 88, after 23 years of contract with the city, he made very controversial statements and ended up fired.
Balandra Beach, Mexico, Baja California, aerial view
Beaches
Balandra beach e El Tecolote, Baja California Sur, Mexico

Seaside Treasures of the Sea of ​​Cortés

Often proclaimed the most beautiful beach in Mexico, we find a serious case of landscape exoticism in the jagged cove of Playa Balandra. The duo if forms with the neighbour Playa Tecolote, is one of the truly unmissable beachfronts of the vast Baja California.
Peasant woman, Majuli, Assam, India
Religion
Majuli Island, India

An Island in Countdown

Majuli is the largest river island in India and would still be one of the largest on Earth were it not for the erosion of the river Bramaputra that has been making it diminish for centuries. If, as feared, it is submerged within twenty years, more than an island, a truly mystical cultural and landscape stronghold of the Subcontinent will disappear.
Serra do Mar train, Paraná, airy view
On Rails
Curitiba a Morretes, Paraná, Brazil

Down Paraná, on Board the Train Serra do Mar

For more than two centuries, only a winding and narrow road connected Curitiba to the coast. Until, in 1885, a French company opened a 110 km railway. We walked along it to Morretes, the final station for passengers today. 40km from the original coastal terminus of Paranaguá.
Walter Peak, Queenstown, New Zealand
Society
New Zealand  

When Counting Sheep causes Sleep Loss

20 years ago, New Zealand had 18 sheep per inhabitant. For political and economic reasons, the average was halved. In the antipodes, many breeders are worried about their future.
the projectionist
Daily life
Sainte-Luce, Martinique

The Nostalgic Projectionist

From 1954 to 1983, Gérard Pierre screened many of the famous films arriving in Martinique. 30 years after the closing of the room in which he worked, it was still difficult for this nostalgic native to change his reel.
A campfire lights up and warms the night, next to Reilly's Rock Hilltop Lodge,
Wildlife
Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary, eSwatini

The Fire That Revived eSwatini's Wildlife

By the middle of the last century, overhunting was wiping out much of the kingdom of Swaziland’s wildlife. Ted Reilly, the son of the pioneer settler who owned Mlilwane, took action. In 1961, he created the first protected area of ​​the Big Game Parks he later founded. He also preserved the Swazi term for the small fires that lightning has long caused.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, the Queen of Extreme Sports

In the century. XVIII, the Kiwi government proclaimed a mining village on the South Island "fit for a queen".Today's extreme scenery and activities reinforce the majestic status of ever-challenging Queenstown.