Plaza Pedro del Castillo
This green square is where Mendoza began. Pedro del Castillo reached the Huentata valley on 22 February 1561 and on 2 March founded the 'Ciudad de Mendoza del Nuevo Valle de La Rioja', at first on the east bank of the channel known today as the Cacique Guaymallén. The young town answered to the Captaincy General of Chile. On 28 March 1562 Juan Jufré moved it west of the channel, onto the ground you're standing on now.
Picture the square in the 1810s: a double row of low tamarind trees framing the centre, and in the middle an old fountain that supplied water to the whole town, ringed by lanterns that were lit in the first hours of the night. Around it rose the great churches of colonial Mendoza: the Iglesia Matriz of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, Santo Domingo, San Agustín, the convent of Santa Mónica and San Francisco. Between 1814 and 1817 this was also the town where General José de San Martín prepared the crossing of the Andes, a story that waits for you at the end of the walk.
On 20 March 1861 an earthquake brought down most of the colonial buildings around the square. Instead of rebuilding here, Mendoza laid out a new city about a kilometre to the southwest, on the old Hacienda de San Nicolás, and the founding quarter was left behind. In 1993 the plaza was restored together with the Museo del Área Fundacional, the San Francisco ruins, an underground chamber and the adjoining part of Parque O'Higgins.
Take a slow lap and look for the ruined walls at the edge of the square; you can already see them from here. The walk over is just 140 m, about 2 minutes, passing the Museo del Área Fundacional on the way.
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