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A bit of History
| A bit of History It was founded in 1680 by Manuel de Lobo and was the only Portuguese settlement along the Rio de la Plata. It has a beautiful history that I'm sure you will enjoy reading about. The site also has a link to some wonderful pictures of the area. It was originally built with wonderful cobblestone streets and maintains an historic area which is part of the picture display. |
| This is very interesting. I like reading about the history of other countries. It is fun seeing places like that. |
| Yeah, I also enjoyed reading about the history of another country, it makes me feel like I am already traveling. Thanks for posting those and I hope that you post more. Thanks a lot. |
| "Anectode"
Do you know why the roof tiles of the city of Colonia are different sizes?It tells the story, the roof tiles were formed in the legs of slaves, and this made each tile is unique, because each leg varied in size. |
| "tiles and cobble stones"
Very interesting Klarita. I never knew this. I imagine the cobble stones were also the product of the slaves' hard work. |
| "Probably legends."
Klarita, Dan, that may be an interesting story; however, it doesn't seem to be true. Slaves in the Rio de la Plata (even in a Portuguese colony as Colonia) were very expensive. It would be a very bad investment to keep that "capital" inactive while the tiles dried on the sun for long, long hours on their legs. In tiles factories, they had special casts to get uniform shapes. In small villages as the Colonia of the founder's time, they used tree rolls to do it and so they varied in shape and size. Sorry to spoil the story.Anyway, all the construction in colonial times was made by slaves or semi-slave indians. Specially during the establishment period. Guarani indians brought from the Misiones were the ones that built the walls of Montevideo and all the significant public buildings. Same thing with Colonia, but probably with black slaves that were brought for the works and taken back to Brazil afterwards. |
Comment #604/12/10 15:31Rural east Colonia departmento | "Cobble stones"
"Very interesting Klarita. I never knew this. I imagine the cobble stones were also the product of the slaves' hard work."Not exactly :-) Only last year I watched a party of young people on a work creation scheme laying cobble stones near the yacht harbour after the tarmac had been removed. Much of what you see today in the oldest parts of Colonia del Sacramento has been reconstructed over the last 12 years. Until recently there has been much moaning here that 90% of our local property taxes have been spent on prettying up Colonia del S. rather than for providing much needed sewer systems for La Paz, Nueva Helvecia and Colonia Valdense. From a personal POV I reckon that our Intendencia has done an excellent job preserving and revamping the older parts of C del S. On the other hand I'm exempted from paying local property taxes so its easy for me to favour the scheme :-) |
| "spending public monies"
"Until recently there has been much moaning here that 90% of our local property taxes have been spent on prettying up Colonia del S. rather than for providing much needed sewer systems for La Paz, Nueva Helvecia and Colonia Valdense."I hear those who are unhappy about how public monies are being spent on keeping Colonia del S. attractive while somewhat "neglecting" (I am using this term loosely) other localities. However, I fear there would be much less to go around for the entire county if the tourists stopped coming... Obviously, striking a balance between what is spent on Colonia del S. and the other towns is the key, but I suspect this must not be easy --given all the typical vested interests-- for the intendencia to achieve. |
Comment #804/13/10 12:54Rural east Colonia departmento | "Good value"
As said, I'm more than happy about the money we've spent on the oldest parts of Colonia del S. Our local settlements in east Colonia have survived 150+ years without sewer systems so we'll probably manage OK for a bit longer. Anyway, sewer systems would put all the local honey carts out of business :-) The old parts of C del S are delightful to stroll around, much of the work was done by formerly unemployed youth and the tourist revenues help to keep the departmento solvent so in my view, the remedial efforts were well worth the cost. |
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