Argentina Guide
The Northwest
Iglesia San Francisco
Address: At the corner of Caseros and Córdoba
A city landmark, taking up a whole city block, the Iglesia y Convento San Francisco is one of the most beautiful religious buildings in the country. An extravaganza of Italianate Neocolonial exuberance by architect Luigi Giorgi, it displays a textbook compliance with architectural principles combined with clever idiosyncrasies. The first thing that strikes you is the colour: pure ivory-white columns stand out from the vibrant ox-blood walls, while the profuse detailing of Latin inscriptions, symbols and Neoclassical patterns is picked out in braid-like golden yellow. Seen against a deep blue sky – virtually perennial hereabouts – the whole effect is stunning. While the main building and the adjoining convent were built in the middle of the eighteenth century, the facade and atrium were later additions, in keeping with the mid-nineteenth-century obsession with Neoclassicism. The church's most imposing feature is the slender campanile, towering over the low-rise Neocolonial houses of downtown Salta and tapering off to a slender spire. Following the convention of three progressively smaller storeys on a plain base, each level is ornamented according to the classic Jesuit order of four styles of column: Tuscan, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite. The highly elaborate facade of the church itself, behind a suitably austere statue of St Francis in the middle of the courtyard, is lavishly decorated with balusters and scrolls, curlicues and pinnacles, Franciscan inscriptions and the order's shield, but the most original features are the organza-like stucco curtains that billow down from each of the three archways, nearly touching the elegant wrought-iron gates below. Inside, the decoration is subdued, almost plain in comparison, but the most eye-catching elements are the three eighteenth-century Portuguese-style jacaranda-wood armchairs behind the altar. The cloisters of the convent sometimes shelter exhibitions of local arts and crafts. If you can, do go on a guided tour ($2; Spanish only), which will also get you into the fascinating Museo de Arte Sacro (Mon– Sat 9.30am–1pm & 3–7pm) – where the surprising archeological section features a perfect terracotta Etruscan head dating from the fourth century BC.