The Buenos Aires plain outlines a colorful bucolic setting around General Las Heras. This environment reaches such widespread dimensions that this town planted since 1863 in the Buenos Aires’s rural landscape is recognized for its fields, the herds of cows grazing on the ranches, the bowling alleys and its clientele of horse laborers willing to share a drink and a game of cards. All the essential pieces that shape the most inspired paintings by Molina Campos.
The brightest shades of green predominate there. However, from the virtuous hand of the master Antonio BerniLas Heras adopts an even more intense chromatic patina in the urban case.
In 1981, the renowned plastic artist left prints on acrylic murals “The Crucifixion” and “Apocalypse” on the walls of the chapel of the San Luis Gonzaga Instituteas a way to celebrate the school’s twentieth anniversary.
The most famous painter from Rosario He arrived here with his brushes, jars and easels from the hand of the priest Hipólito Pordomingo, who had resorted to the good offices of the artist from Herense Esteban Semino to convince Berni, his personal friend.
The work that decorates both sides of the temple’s altar – at the entrance to Las Heras on Villamayor Avenue, 100 meters from Provincial Route 40 – is an unbeatable welcome to begin rescuing the little-promoted cultural and gastronomic circuit that appears at this key stop of the train that unites Once with Merlo and Lobos since the founding times of the Western Railway.
Tribute to priest Hipólito Pordomingo on the corner of the San Luis Gonzaga Institute, in Las Heras. The names of Berni and Pordomingo, engraved in block letters in the imagination of the residents, were fixed on the altar of local heroes along with the fame achieved by Esteban Semino even after his death, in 1986. His works are exhibited in four rooms of his house converted into a museum, in front of the station.
Semino’s paintings – heard often during a tour of the collection of 150 paintings– deserved glowing comments from the demanding gaze of their prestigious colleagues Juan Carlos Castagnino, Enrique Policastro, Lino Enea Spilimbergo, Berni and Raúl Soldi.
Within the centuries-old walls of the Semino family’s mansion there is also the Matute restauranta dining room that emerged in 1907 as the first reference for visitors getting off the train.
More than a century later, and under the leadership of Juan Francisco Prado, it is a bastion of homemade dishes served in excessive portionsin the midst of the multiple forms of popular culture that customers express.
The main room of the Matute restaurant, which emerged in 1907 as a general store in front of the station.“Here you have to try the complete chorizo steak, the cold cuts and cheeses, the paella and the seafood casserole,” the waiter Diego Otamendi assures with certainty, as a kind of requirement to meet to be recognized as another Herense.
Farm workers, ranchers, neighbors with large families and politicians with short careers and ephemeral fame usually share these tables and delight the palate while enjoying a chat in the most suitable place to meet.
On the other side of the road, the main square It stands out as the most welcoming place for open-air social gatherings. Residents and tourists walk and discreetly greet each other along the paths drawn around the monument to General Juan Gregorio de Las Heras.
San Cipriano parish temple, inaugurated in 1882.There, the San Cipriano parish temple (inaugurated in 1882), the children’s play area contrasted with the imposing building of the School No. 1 (from 1911) and the intact postcard from the beginning of the 20th century from that corner decorated with tango murals that refer to the half-lit suburbs of Buenos Aires and a Ford T lacking an engine, although with robust and impeccable sheet metal.
About six blocks from the busiest green space, in the Los Tres Carlos museumthe saddler Carlos Chiappa installed his workshop and the household objects of three generations of his family in public view. The evocative emotion in this 1910 home can reach its maximum expression if the tour is led by Luis Bevilacqua, to whom the owner of the house himself taught the secrets of the soguería and the saddlery.
Los Tres Carlos Museum, a rope and saddlery workshop open to the public.This gaucho with a prodigious memory and firm voice gained renown both for his job and for his the tenths you write and, every time he is required, he deigns to recite without holding anything back.
Las Heras seems to take on another dimension under the light of its characters – those who knew how to transcend their borders and those who were less visible. With that heritage, the “National Duck Capital“, where the polohe roast and the horseback ridingshows other valuable cards.
School No. 1, in front of the main square of Las Heras since 1911.Miniguide
- How to get there. From the city of Buenos Aires to Las Heras it is 97 km along the Riccheri and Ezeiza-Cañuelas highways, route 6 to Marcos Paz and provincial route 40. Option for Western Access: at the Pérez Quintana exit, turn left, cross the road at the Merlo station and continue along route 40.
Combi Del Sur Bus from Obelisco to Las Heras, $10,260 one way when booking online (delsurbus.com.ar).
Sarmiento train from Once to Las Heras with transfer in Merlo, $1,273; with SUBE, $823.
Bus 136 from Primera Junta to Las Heras, $509 Common service and $1,400 Express.
A mural painted on a century-old corner in Las Heras.- Where to stay. Estancia Santa Elena: two days and one night with breakfast, cable TV, wi-fi, horses, bocce ball, shuffleboard, soccer, volleyball, games for children, pool and ping pong, $67,000 per person for a double base, $60,000 for a triple base , $52 quadruple base and $45,000 quintuple base (0220- 476-3030 / 02227- 15574148 / www.estancisantaelena.com.ar.
Hotel Santoro: double room with cable TV and wi-fi, $45,000; triple, $60,000 (0220-476-1141).
- Where to eat. Matute Restaurant: cold cuts and cheese board, $18,000 small, $23,000 medium and $32,000 large; Milanese with fries or mashed potatoes, $11,500; baked fish with potatoes, $15,800; seafood casserole, $35,000; flan or cheese and sweet, $4,900; apple pancake with rhum or pumpkins or figs in syrup, $7,900 (156-3585779).
La Notada country restaurant: appetizers, free barbecue, dessert, non-alcoholic drink, snack (homemade pastries with infusions) and parlor and children’s games, $29,000; from 2 to 9 years, 50% (154- 1917084).
Esteban Semino Museum, in Las Heras.- Where to get information. (0220) 476-2260/3390 / cultura@gobiernodelasheras.com / www.gobiernodelasheras.com / Facebook: Undersecretary of Culture and Tourism of the Municipality of Las Heras.