This city of 38.000 inhabitants is departmental head, has more than 400 years of history; born as a prosperous Jesuit stay, today is the most important city in this sector.
It possesses a strange characteristic among the cities of America, only comparable with some existent ones in the territory of Tiny in Bolivia that were in the last missions of the Jesuit. This characteristic is that the agroindustrial stay that gave origin to the city was placed in the urban center.
What was the esplanade procesional in front of the church of the stay is today the main square, surrounded by the church, the Jesuit residence, the building of the shops or obraje and the tajamar. This group is now broken into fragments by the urban streets.
The growth of the city is directly linked with the sways of this agricultural property that it arises as grace of Juan Nieto in 1588.
To their death in 1612 Alonso Nieto de Herrera inherited it who calls to Nuestra Señora of Alta Gracia, to his wife's death and without having heirs, it enters to Jesus' Company, to who bequeaths the property for public writing in 1643.
In the Jesuit period (1643-1767) the building was dedicated to industrial and agricultural activities rises - cattlemen, for support of the biggest School in Córdoba.
In 1767 with the expulsion of the Jesuit, as the rest of their properties, this passes to the Meeting of Impermanences up to 1773, when it is sold in public bid.
Then several proprietors are happened being one of the most outstanding Santiago in Liniers, Viceroy of the Rio de La Plata that inhabited it a short time until their death in 1810; it was maintained by their heirs up to 1820.
The following and last proprietor, José Manuel Solares, prepared to his death (1868) the parcels of the stay and his distribution to «the poor of notorious honesty» as long as the main house was in hands of Telésfora Lozada.
The village that was municipality in 1900 is born this way and in 1940 it became city.
It was favored by a benign climate and the arrival of the railroad that it marked a new stage in their development. In the first half of this century it was the elect for the Buenos Aires traditional families as place of I vacation, starting from the inauguration of the Hotel Mountains and their Casino, in 1910.
Today is closely linked Córdoba, in summer it is important tourist center starting from the use of its spas and during the whole year the visits are reiterated to the Jesuit group or the grotto of the virgin of Lourdes. |
