Argentina Guide
The Northwest
Convento San Bernardo
Opening time: Closed to the public
Address: Calle Caseros
The sixteenth-century Convento San Bernardo is one of the oldest buildings still standing in Salta, albeit heavily altered and restored over the centuries. The convent's sturdy limewashed facade, punctuated by the tiniest of windows and a couple of dainty lamps on simple iron brackets, contrasts pleasingly with the backdrop of chocolate-brown mountains, the stark plaza in front and two heavily ornate Rococo-style doors. The first, to the left, is the former entrance to the early nineteenth-century Bethlemite Hospital, now blocked off: framed by four Tuscan columns, it comprises an oval ox-eye and a curvaceous fan-shaped lintel, dripping with Baroque mouldings. A large Argentine flag flutters over the other convent entrance, further to the right, knocked through the wall in the middle of the nineteenth century. Its decoration is a carbon copy of the first, except it has spiralling columns on either side and, instead of a blind window, its centrepiece is a lavishly carved cedar door, dating from 1762 and transferred from a patrician house elsewhere in the city. A smaller door, for daily use, has been cut into the enormous portal, which is opened only for special processions.