The Jesuit legacy, the place that inspired Martín Fierro and “El Milagro” of the scarfs

With the advantage of being so close to Mar del Plata, the peaceful people of Sierra de los Padres It becomes a great option to make mini tourism in the windy days, fresh with sun and cloudy. Together with the port, the Shoppings (Paseo Aldrey and Los Gallegos), Villa Victoria and the proposals to snack along Güemes Street, among other things.

About 20 km from La Feliz, this town is on the latest formations of the old Tandilia system, mountains that run through the center-west of General Pueyrredón, in the southeast of the province of Buenos Aires.

So far it is reached by Route 226, between ravines, lagoons, streams and mountains. Therefore, the car ride from Mardel demands a minimum of three hours to be able to travel without trouble the proposals, cultural, recreational and gastronomic of the area.

There are also tourism companies that organize Excursions in Combi for $ 20,000 per person and leave Plaza España or Plaza Colón.

How to get there? Marplatense Avenue Pedro Luro becomes the national route 226 and, starting from the center of the spa city, it is passed through the new ferroautomotor station -which retains the old building -, the racecourse and the fruit and fruit market are left behind and in the Km 12 appears a roundabout indicating the first access to Laguna de los Padres Natural Reserve.

Successively, new accesses appear until the great water mirror is reached, where rowing, canoeing and windsurf can be practiced.

On an area of ​​more than 600 hectares, there are campsites, fishing clubs and recreational spaces with grills to roasted between groves and Araucarias forests.

On the side of the Laguna de las Cabrillas (today, Laguna de los Padres) The Reduction of Our Lady of Pilar When this area was a territory inhabited by the Pampas peoples. In 1746, three Jesuits carried out a small settlement formed by Puelches, moluches and mountains that were established around the mission.

A cross presided over the action of the Jesuit parents Falkner, Cardiel and Strobel who began their work in the area without imagining that on the edge of the lagoon – to which they gave him his name – the humble constructions would be lifted.

The monks only preached the Catholic faith and induced these nomadic ethnicities to a more sedentary life, leading them to work the earth, as happened in the People’s staywhere they cultivated wheat for the first time.

Before the claims of the Pampas, the Jesuits left the evangelizing plan in 1751, turning the reduction into the second Christian population into indigenous territory.

“In an environment like this, the Jesuit missionaries lived in the midst of the most absolute austerity, having as a framework the loneliness of the deserted pampa and as the only object the greatest glory of God.” This poster can be read when entering one of the housing rebuilt next to a large image of Ceferino Namuncurá and a map of the province of Buenos Aires, among other things.

Currently, The constructions that are visited are replicaslike the one that shows the path that Jesus’ company was traveling with his work from the north of the country.

To locate in time and space, you must remember that Mar del Plata was founded on February 10, 1874.

In the historical place there is also the Our Lady of Pilar Parishwhere the Jesuit reduction is one of the chapels a few meters from the Laguna of the parents.

With white walls and straw roofs, it is a historical reconstruction of a chapel, next to the constructions that include a museum remembering the mission of the Jesuit parents and the indigenous populations of the area.

The reduction You can visit every day from 10 to 17 free of charge and on Sundays Mass is celebrated in the chapel.

By 1826 the Parent Lagoon Staywhere the poet, journalist and military José Hernández was installed with his father.

During part of childhood and adolescence, all experiences in the field of Author of the “Martín Fierro” They were going to mark and inspire when writing the top work of gaucho literature, when he came into contact with the gauchos and knew customs, language and way of life.

In the place where the helmet of the old stay was, in 1885 the José Hernández Municipal Museumwhich reflects rural history, next to the shearing shed and the cattle trail.

In the rock mass of Sierra de los Padres, one of the great unmissable is the Grotto of the Virgin, better known as the scarfs. Because? Because he took the name for the scarves that devout people place knotting the scarves with each other and asking God and the Virgin.

It all started in 1948, when a couple of Italian immigrants placed an image of the Virgin on a natural pedestal and tied the first scarves begging to grant them a child because they couldn’t have.

At four months they returned to the place to thank “the miracle” because the woman was pregnant and they argued that the Virgin had listened to her pleas, so they put more scarves.

Over the years, the place was filled with visitors who knotted their scarves And there was so much the amount that formed a chain of colorful fabrics that climbed and down the rocks.

In 1982 the image of the Virgin of place in the cave was enthroned: the faithful continue to leave their scarves and ask for health, work and family.

He Outdoor Shopping Center Paseo de la Cumbre It has several stores with regional products, crafts, sweets, chocolates, decoration and clothing. Uploading stairs and on wood decks, restaurant and confectionery services have a very good view of the mountains.

Both those who arrive at their own account and those who come on excursion take a couple of hours to travel without hurry and take some in the middle of the peace of the Serrano landscape.