Theme Week Uruguay – Colonia del Sacramento
Friday, 24 August 2018 - 12:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: South America / Südamerika General , UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Misiones de los Tapes Street at night © Flc1980/cc-by-sa-3.0
🔊 Listen to this Post
Colonia del Sacramento, formerly the
Portuguese Colónia do Sacramento ) is a
city in southwestern
Uruguay , by the
Río de la Plata , facing
Buenos Aires ,
Argentina . It is one of the oldest towns in Uruguay and capital of the
Colonia Department . It has a population of around 27,000. It is renowned for its historic quarter, a
UNESCO World Heritage Site . Modern Colonia del Sacramento produces
textiles and has a
free trade zone , in addition to a
polytechnic centre and various government buildings.
The city was developed on a peninsula that protrudes into the Río de la Plata. The 16 hectare “Barrio Histórico”, or Portuguese Old City, was enclosed by a fortification wall across the peninsula in the site of present-day Calle Ituzaingó. Most of the fortification wall was removed in 1777 and the remaining parts in 1859. The Portuguese part of the city has an irregular street network. Outside the wall, the historical part of the city was planned in Spanish colonial style and in the characteristic checkerboard layout.
Historic District, seen from the lighthouse © HalloweenHJB/cc-by-sa-3.0
The
Barrio Histórico (historic quarter) section of Colonia del Sacramento is designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It is a popular tourist attraction for visitors from Buenos Aires, and there is frequent ferry service across the Río de la Plata between the two cities, with fast ferries completing the journey in just 50 minutes. The historical section of Colonia, which has some cobblestone streets built by the Portuguese in the 17th century, is within walking distance of the ferry terminal. Among the notable tourist attractions around the tree-lined Plaza Mayor (main square) are:
Portón de Campo – the City Gate and wooden drawbridge
Lighthouse and convent ruins of the 17th century Convent of San Francisco
Basílica del Santísimo Sacramento – the Basilica of the Holy Sacrament, built of stone by the Portuguese in 1808Portuguese Museum – constructed in the 18th century, it exhibits Portuguese furnishings, jewelry, uniforms and old maps of Portuguese naval expeditions
Casa de Nacarello – an 18th-century Portuguese house
Municipal Museum – rebuilt by the Spanish in 1835 as the Casa del Almirante Brown, it exhibits artifacts and documents of the city’s different periods and cultures
Viceroy’s House – the Casa del Virrey, reconstructed from the original ruins
Plaza de toros Real de San Carlos , a Bullring included in an old tourist complex now abandoned.
Here you can find the complete Overview of all Theme Weeks .LonelyPlanet.com – Colonia del Sacramento , unesco.org – Colonia del Sacramento , Wikitravel Colonia del Sacramento , Wikivoyage Colonia del Sacramento and Wikipedia Colonia del Sacramento . Learn more about the use of photos . To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index ). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net . Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.VIDEO
Recommended posts:
[caption id="attachment_160710" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Houses on the Jeetze © Schiwago[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Salzwedel, officially known as Hansestadt Salzwedel, is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, and has a population of approximately 21,500. Salzwedel is located on the German Timber-Frame Road. Salzwedel is situated at the Jeetze River in the northwestern part of the Altmark. It is located between Hamburg and Magdeburg. The delicacies of the town are ...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_217646" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Ingo Mehling/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See (Spanish: Catedral de Santa María de la Sede), better known as Seville Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It was registered in 1987 by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, along with the adjoining Alcázar palace complex and the General Archive of the Indies. It is the fourth-largest church in the world (its size remains a matter of debate...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_221008" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Front Street © JoeyBagODonuts/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The City of Hamilton, in Pembroke Parish, is the territorial capital of the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda. It is the territory's financial centre and a major port and tourist destination. Its population of 854 (2016) is one of the smallest of any capital cities. According to Numbeo, Hamilton, Bermuda holds the record for the highest cost of living index in the world with the cost of livin...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_232331" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © flickr.com - Luis Rogelio HM/cc-by-sa-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Molina de Aragón is a municipality located in the province of Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2009 census (INE), the municipality had a population of 3,671 inhabitants. It holds the record (−28.2°C) for the lowest temperature measured by a meteorological station in Spain.
It was the seat of the taifa of Molina, a Moorish independent state, before it was reconq...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_159777" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Town Hall, St. Peter's Cathedral and Parliament © Klaus Grünberg[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area (2.4 million people). Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany. Bremen is some 60 km (37 mi) south from the Weser mouth on the North S...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_217993" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Paul 14/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Veere is a municipality with a population of 22,000 and a town with a population of 1,500 in the southwestern Netherlands, in the region of Walcheren in the province of Zeeland. The area of the municipality of Veere is 13,496 hectares, with a coastline of 34 kilometres.
As a result of the damming of the Veerse Gat inlet in 1961, the fishing fleet of Veere moved to a new home port at Colijnsplaat on Noord-Bev...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_229166" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Pallastunturi hills in Pallas-Yllästunturin National Park © Petr Vodička/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Lapland is the largest and northernmost region of Finland. The 21 municipalities in the region cooperate in a Regional Council. Lapland borders the region of North Ostrobothnia in the south. It also borders the Gulf of Bothnia, Norrbotten County in Sweden, Troms and Finnmark County in Norway, and Murmansk Oblast and the Republic of Karelia in Russia. T...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_215081" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Bernt Müller/cc-by-sa-2.0/de[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Simon-Dach-Straße is a street that was laid out towards the end of the 19th century and is located in Berlin's Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district, Friedrichshain. In 1903 it was named after the German song writer Simon Dach. Together with the neighboring roads Wühlischstraße, Boxhagener Straße, Krossener Straße and Gabriel-Max-Straße, it forms the area known as Simon-Dach-Kiez, which has developed into...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_234655" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Main church 'Nativity of the Virgin Mother' © Daniel Petrov/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Monastery of Saint John of Rila, also known as Rila Monastery "Sveti Ivan Rilski", is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. It is situated in the southwestern Rila Mountains, 117 km (73 mi) south of the capital Sofia in the deep valley of the Rilska River ("Rila River") at an elevation of 1,147 m (3,763 ft) above sea level, inside of...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_27087" align="aligncenter" width="590"] New Synagogue © Maros M r a z/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The New Synagogue is a synagogue in Dresden. The edifice was completed in 2001 and designed by architects Rena Wandel-Hoefer and Wolfgang Lorch. The building was shortlisted by the jury for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture in 2003. It was built on the same location as the Semper Synagogue (1839–1840) designed by Gottfried Semper, which was destroyed in 1938, during the Kris...
[ read more ]
