Área Fundacional, San Francisco Ruins, Paseo Sarmiento & Mercado Central Guide

Because the catastrophic earthquake of 20 March 1861 destroyed colonial Mendoza in a matter of seconds and prompted authorities to rebuild the modern city one kilometre to the south-west, visitors who stay only around the five modern plazas often miss the place where Mendoza began in 1561. Walking fifteen minutes north-east along Avenida San Martín or Calle Ituzaingó brings you to the Área Fundacional (Old Town / Cuarta Sección), where archaeological excavations and surviving Jesuit arches tell the story of Mendoza's first three centuries.

1. Plaza Pedro del Castillo, Museo del Área Fundacional (MAF) & San Francisco Ruins

• Plaza Pedro del Castillo & the Underground Cabildo Chambers: Centred on the original colonial Plaza Mayor where Spanish conquistador Pedro del Castillo founded Mendoza on 2 March 1561, the Museo del Área Fundacional (MAF) was built in 1993 directly over the excavated brick floors of the colonial Cabildo (Town Hall) and the nineteenth-century municipal market. Inside, glass walkways look down onto pre-Hispanic Huarpe pottery, Spanish tilework, and the subterranean Cámara Subterránea below the square, where the original seventeenth-century stone water cistern and fountain that supplied colonial Mendoza remain intact; check the municipal portal for Tuesday-to-Sunday opening hours.
• Ruinas Jesuíticas de San Francisco (Built 1716 to 1731): Directly across Calle Ituzaingó at the corner of Beltrán stand the evocative brick-and-stone piers of the former Jesuit Church of San Francisco (declared a National Historic Monument in 1941), the only colonial monument whose massive masonry walls withstood the 1861 seismic shock. Next door sits the modern Parque O'Higgins and the municipal aquarium.

2. Paseo Peatonal Sarmiento, Pasaje San Martín (1926) & Mercado Central (1889)

• Paseo Sarmiento & Pasaje San Martín: Back in the modern centre, three pedestrianised blocks of Paseo Sarmiento connect Plaza Independencia with Avenida San Martín beneath outdoor café tables, wine boutiques, and pergola arches. At the corner of Sarmiento and San Martín rises the seven-storey Pasaje San Martín (inaugurated 1926), Mendoza's earliest earthquake-engineered reinforced-concrete building, famous for its vaulted French stained-glass gallery ceiling imported from Nancy.
• Mercado Central de Mendoza (Avenida Las Heras 279, Founded 1889) & Casa de San Martín: Four blocks north on Avenida Las Heras, step inside the lively aisles of the Mercado Central to browse cured meats, Cuyo olives, saffron, dried fruits, and casual lunch counters serving warm carne a la masa and empanadas, then walk over to the Paseo de la Alameda and the excavated home of General José de San Martín at Calle Corrientes 343.