The guide said: ´The Company of Jesus, a religious order founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, had these purely productive
built. The agricultural and cattle products would be traded and used to supply religious and educational Jesuit institutions such as
'.
After passing from hand to hand, in 1810, it became the residence of Viceroy Santiago de Liniers for a short time and that is why this venue is also known as
(House of the Viceroy).
The long process since the arrival of the Jesuits to the moment it was declared World Historical Heritage in 2000 becomes explicit throughout the visit to the various quarters in the museum.
The Jesuits used to command tasks to be performed by native Americans who were paid and black slaves in a very organized way. Everything was carried out in the venue: bars, lamps, tackle, tools. Some scale models clearly show the distribution of the areas and made the visit more interesting.
All throughout the rooms, we saw the blacksmith's, the brick oven, the dam or
tajamar to contain the creek course, the flour mills and the mechanisms used for each area of production.
In the same venue, we visited the temple, featuring a colonial Baroque style, with only one nave of blind walls and a pulpit with Rococo woodwork and gold leafing. The major altarpiece is a work of art that ends in the superior cornice with two carved angels.
Religious orders used art as an axis of religious life. Therefore, they mingled the European and native American models and created crucibles, saints and images of the Virgin combining these styles.
We left behind the long L-shaped gallery with old lamps and pointed windows to move to the backyard. This place has a direct access to the dam known as
Tajamar and the present Public Clock.
Tajamar is the oldest dam in
the Province of Córdoba. The water used to come from the mountains through irrigation ditches and it was stored in its wall. It powered flour mills and supplied water to the nearby estates.
We had one last look at this building raised in 1643, whose last owner, Manuel Solares, donated it to 'decent poor people'. Thus, a village emerged and today is known as the City of Alta Gracia.
We bade farewell to the Jesuit
estancia located in the urban center of Alta Gracia, where yesterday and today are connected through a building featuring several hundred years.