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.
Amboseli National Park, Mount Kilimanjaro, Normatior Hill
Safari
Amboseli National Park, Kenya

A Gift from the Kilimanjaro

The first European to venture into these Masai haunts was stunned by what he found. And even today, large herds of elephants and other herbivores roam the pastures irrigated by the snow of Africa's biggest mountain.
Braga or Braka or Brakra in Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 6th – Braga, Nepal

The Ancient Nepal of Braga

Four days of walking later, we slept at 3.519 meters from Braga (Braka). Upon arrival, only the name is familiar to us. Faced with the mystical charm of the town, arranged around one of the oldest and most revered Buddhist monasteries on the Annapurna circuit, we continued our journey there. acclimatization with ascent to Ice Lake (4620m).
Sirocco, Arabia, Helsinki
Architecture & Design
Helsinki, Finland

The Design that Came from the Cold

With much of the territory above the Arctic Circle, Finns respond to the climate with efficient solutions and an obsession with art, aesthetics and modernism inspired by neighboring Scandinavia.
lagoons and fumaroles, volcanoes, PN tongariro, new zealand
Adventure
Tongariro, New Zealand

The Volcanoes of All Discords

In the late XNUMXth century, an indigenous chief ceded the PN Tongariro volcanoes to the British crown. Today, a significant part of the Maori people claim their mountains of fire from European settlers.
Newar celebration, Bhaktapur, Nepal
Ceremonies and Festivities
Bhaktapur, Nepal

The Nepalese Masks of Life

The Newar Indigenous People of the Kathmandu Valley attach great importance to the Hindu and Buddhist religiosity that unites them with each other and with the Earth. Accordingly, he blesses their rites of passage with newar dances of men masked as deities. Even if repeated long ago from birth to reincarnation, these ancestral dances do not elude modernity and begin to see an end.
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Cities
Victoria, Mahé, Seychelles

From Francophone “Establishment” to the Creole Capital of Seychelles

The French populated their “Etablissement” with European, African and Indian settlers. Two centuries later, British rivals took over the archipelago and renamed the city in honor of their Queen Victoria. When we visit it, the Seychelles capital remains as multiethnic as it is tiny.
Fogón de Lola, great food, Costa Rica, Guápiles
Meal
Fogón de Lola Costa Rica

The Flavor of Costa Rica of El Fogón de Lola

As the name suggests, the Fogón de Lola de Guapiles serves dishes prepared on the stove and in the oven, according to Costa Rican family tradition. In particular, Tia Lola's.
Gothic couple
Culture

Matarraña to Alcanar, Spain (España)

A Medieval Spain

Traveling through the lands of Aragon and Valencia, we come across towers and detached battlements of houses that fill the slopes. Mile after kilometer, these visions prove to be as anachronistic as they are fascinating.

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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.
Africa Princess, Canhambaque, Bijagós, Guinea Bissau,
Traveling
Africa Princess Cruise, 1º Bijagos, Guinea Bissau

Towards Canhambaque, through the History of Guinea Bissau

The Africa Princess departs from the port of Bissau, downstream the Geba estuary. We make a first stopover on the island of Bolama. From the old capital, we proceed to the heart of the Bijagós archipelago.
Early morning on the lake
Ethnic

Nantou, Taiwan

In the Heart of the Other China

Nantou is Taiwan's only province isolated from the Pacific Ocean. Those who discover the mountainous heart of this region today tend to agree with the Portuguese navigators who named Taiwan Formosa.

View of Fa Island, Tonga, Last Polynesian Monarchy
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

Exotic Signs of Life

Cachena cow in Valdreu, Terras de Bouro, Portugal
History
Campos do GerêsTerras de Bouro, Portugal

Through the Campos do Gerês and the Terras de Bouro

We continue on a long, zigzag tour through the domains of Peneda-Gerês and Bouro, inside and outside our only National Park. In this one of the most worshiped areas in the north of Portugal.
Santa Maria, Sal Island, Cape Verde, Landing
Islands
Santa Maria, Sal Island, Cape Verde

Santa Maria and the Atlantic Blessing of Sal

Santa Maria was founded in the first half of the XNUMXth century, as a salt export warehouse. Today, thanks to the providence of Santa Maria, Sal Ilha is worth much more than the raw material.
Boats on ice, Hailuoto Island, Finland.
Winter White
Hailuoto, Finland

A Refuge in the Gulf of Bothnia

During winter, the island of Hailuoto is connected to the rest of Finland by the country's longest ice road. Most of its 986 inhabitants esteem, above all, the distance that the island grants them.
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Literature
Saint Petersburg, Russia

On the Trail of "Crime and Punishment"

In St. Petersburg, we cannot resist investigating the inspiration for the base characters in Fyodor Dostoevsky's most famous novel: his own pities and the miseries of certain fellow citizens.
Mangrove between Ibo and Quirimba Island-Mozambique
Nature
Ibo Island a Quirimba IslandMozambique

Ibo to Quirimba with the Tide

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Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
Windward Side, Saba, Dutch Caribbean, Netherlands
Natural Parks
Saba, The Netherlands

The Mysterious Dutch Queen of Saba

With a mere 13km2, Saba goes unnoticed even by the most traveled. Little by little, above and below its countless slopes, we unveil this luxuriant Little Antille, tropical border, mountainous and volcanic roof of the shallowest european nation.
Acre, Templar Stronghold, Israel, Crispy Sweets
UNESCO World Heritage
Saint John of Acre, Israel

The Fortress That Withstood Everything

It was a frequent target of the Crusades and taken over and over again. Today, Israeli, Acre is shared by Arabs and Jews. He lives much more peaceful and stable times than the ones he went through.
female and cub, grizzly footsteps, katmai national park, alaska
Characters
PN Katmai, Alaska

In the Footsteps of the Grizzly Man

Timothy Treadwell spent summers on end with the bears of Katmai. Traveling through Alaska, we followed some of its trails, but unlike the species' crazy protector, we never went too far.
Boat and helmsman, Cayo Los Pájaros, Los Haitises, Dominican Republic
Beaches
Samaná PeninsulaLos Haitises National Park Dominican Republic

From the Samaná Peninsula to the Dominican Haitises

In the northeast corner of the Dominican Republic, where Caribbean nature still triumphs, we face an Atlantic much more vigorous than expected in these parts. There we ride on a communal basis to the famous Limón waterfall, cross the bay of Samaná and penetrate the remote and exuberant “land of the mountains” that encloses it.
Bride gets in car, traditional wedding, Meiji temple, Tokyo, Japan
Religion
Tokyo, Japan

A Matchmaking Sanctuary

Tokyo's Meiji Temple was erected to honor the deified spirits of one of the most influential couples in Japanese history. Over time, it specialized in celebrating traditional weddings.
Train Fianarantsoa to Manakara, Malagasy TGV, locomotive
On Rails
Fianarantsoa-Manakara, Madagascar

On board the Malagasy TGV

We depart Fianarantsoa at 7a.m. It wasn't until 3am the following morning that we completed the 170km to Manakara. The natives call this almost secular train Train Great Vibrations. During the long journey, we felt, very strongly, those of the heart of Madagascar.
Creepy Goddess Graffiti, Haight Ashbury, San Francisco, USA, United States America
Society
The Haight, San Francisco, USA

Orphans of the Summer of Love

Nonconformity and creativity are still present in the old Flower Power district. But almost 50 years later, the hippie generation has given way to a homeless, uncontrolled and even aggressive youth.
herd, foot-and-mouth disease, weak meat, colonia pellegrini, argentina
Daily life
Colónia Pellegrini, Argentina

When the Meat is Weak

The unmistakable flavor of Argentine beef is well known. But this wealth is more vulnerable than you think. The threat of foot-and-mouth disease, in particular, keeps authorities and growers afloat.
Everglades National Park, Florida, United States, flight over the Everglades canals
Wildlife
Everglades National Park, Florida, USA

Florida's Great Weedy River

Anyone who flies over the south of the 27th state is amazed by the green, smooth and soggy vastness that contrasts with the surrounding oceanic tones. This unique U.S. marsh-prairie ecosystem is home to a prolific fauna dominated by 200 of Florida's 1.25 million alligators.
Full Dog Mushing
Scenic Flights
Seward, Alaska

The Alaskan Dog Mushing Summer

It's almost 30 degrees and the glaciers are melting. In Alaska, entrepreneurs have little time to get rich. Until the end of August, dog mushing cannot stop.