Argentina’s religious sites have never been in such demand. The elevation of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires to Pope Francis I this spring has sparked interest in the Roman Catholic markers of his homeland.
There has been an increase of visits to the Catedral Metropolitana, where the pope celebrated Mass before his elevation, and to Flores, the neighborhood where he grew up and home to the basilica where he was a priest, said Pamela Resnik of the tourism ministry’s development office.
Formal tours are in development, including one from the national tourism
ministry, which in August will offer a program with a suggested
itinerary and historical research called Los Caminos del Papa Francisco,
or the highways of Pope Francis, with tour sites in Buenos Aires as
well as in the provinces of Córdoba and Santa Fe, where the cardinal
studied and served.
And some travel agencies are beginning to integrate
the history of the pope into itineraries of Buenos Aires. Another, Say
Hueque, is creating a papal tour with stops in Buenos Aires and the
Jesuit ruins in San Ignacio Miní.
Visitors who don’t want to wait for the tours to form can visit a number
of sites on their own. Below are some destinations for people seeking
to examine the rich Catholic heritage of the country where the New World
pope’s origins lie.
Buenos Aires - The Catedral Metropolitana
The pope was archbishop here from 2001 until his elevation this year.
The church, which overlooks Plaza de Mayo near the Presidential Palace,
was built in the early 1700s over earlier structures dating to 1580. The
church was elevated to cathedral status in 1836 as Buenos Aires grew
larger and received a bishop. The Greek Revival facade dates from this
time period, and the interior includes a carved gilded baroque altar and
a dais with a silver repoussé offertory table. Other highlights include
a shrine donated by a soccer player in honor of victims of the military
dictatorship from 1976 to 1982 and a memorial to Jewish victims of the
Holocaust and the 1990s bombings of the Israeli Embassy and the
Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), inside the cathedral’s
chapel for Our Lady of Lujan in the left nave. According to Susana
Alter, a guide specializing in Jewish tours, the memorial includes
“pages from prayer books that were rescued from the remains of the
embassy, the AMIA, the synagogue in Berlin, different ghettos and
concentration camps.” No visit is complete without seeing the mausoleum
of General José de San Martín, who worked with Símon Bolívar to help
free Argentina (among others) from Spanish rule.
Buenos Aires - Manzanas de las Luces (Blocks of Enlightenment)
Because the pope is the first member of the Society of Jesus elected to
the role, the country’s many Jesuit sites have taken on new
significance. One, a complex of Jesuit structures collectively known as
the Blocks of Enlightenment, is connected by underground tunnels in
which priests — and merchants during the colonial era who traded in
contraband and slaves — could move unseen. The land was granted to the
Jesuits in 1616 and includes the city’s oldest church, San Ignacio, and
the Colegio Nacional, the country’s most elite high school. Guides lead
tours that detail the history of the complex and explore a small area
within the tunnels, whose extent still remains unknown. Visitors can
also take in the Basílica y Convento de San Francisco de Asís, completed
in 1754. On the day that Juan Perón’s government collapsed in 1955, the
basilica, then home to Eva Perón’s personal confessor, Padre Hernán
Benítez, was attacked and burned along with many other churches. The
interior was damaged but restored, and the relics of the attack, burned
wooden decorations, are on view in the church’s museum. Its facade,
still intact, is adorned with statues of St. Francis of Assisi, for whom
the new pope is named, along with Dante Alighieri and Christopher
Columbus.
Buenos Aires - Nuestra Señora del Pilar
This beautiful white colonial church is one of many that dot the city
designed by the Jesuit architect Andrés Blanqui. As it is adjacent to
the Recoleta Cemetery, one of the city’s most visited sites, foreigners
already chance upon Sunday services, but less often enter for tours of
the convent, known for agate windows that hid the nuns from view and its
creaky original floorboards, dating from 1732.
Buenos Aires - Barrio Flores
The site where the pope’s childhood home once was, Calle Membrillar 531
in Flores, became a pilgrimage stop upon his selection. People have
flocked there, undeterred by the fact that Flores is among the city’s
most crime-ridden neighborhoods, and that the building is not open to
the public nor is even his actual childhood home. Still, on March 21,
the Buenos Aires City Legislature declared the site of value to the
city’s cultural heritage, adding a plaque that marked it as the location
of his childhood home. Nearby is the Basilica of Flores, an early stop
during his priesthood. Those unfamiliar with the neighborhood should
hire a guide from a travel company.
Luján - Basilica of Our Lady of Luján
This basilica, dedicated to Our Lady of Luján, Argentina’s
representation of the Virgin Mary, is the country’s most important
religious pilgrimage site. It is in Luján, a city about 42 miles
northwest of Buenos Aires, for a reason: A wagon with a statue of the
Virgin Mary became stuck along its route in 1630, which drivers took as a
sign that the Virgin Mary had chosen the spot for her shrine. Today’s
basilica largely dates from the late 1800s and early 1900s and is an
imposing neo-Gothic structure with double spires rising dramatically
from the flat landscape of the Pampas.
Córdoba - Manzana Jesuitíca
No other Argentine city more completely reflects Jesuit history than
Córdoba, with its Unesco-recognized churches and educational structures.
Maria Belen Urquiza, Córdoba’s subdirector of tourism, said that with
the selection of Cardinal Bergoglio as the first Jesuit pope, “many
people asked about Jesuits’ history in Córdoba.” Ms. Urquiza stressed
visiting the Manzana Jesuitíca, centered on the National University of
Córdoba, Argentina’s oldest university, established by the Jesuits in
1613. The main religious building here is Compañía de Jesús, built in
1676. Other nearby towns, including Alta Gracia, where Ernesto Guevara,
better known as Che, had lived for several years, began as Jesuit farms,
supporting the church’s educational work. The Museo de la Estancia
Jesuítica de Alta Gracia is the most accessible estancia museum for
those on short trips and is near the Che Guevara museum.