Parque General San Martín, Cerro de la Gloria & the Five Plazas Guide

After the devastating earthquake of 20 March 1861 levelled colonial Mendoza, civic planners and landscape architects created one of the most visionary urban oasis layouts in the Americas: a downtown grid anchored by five interconnected tree-canopied squares that leads directly west into the 394-hectare Parque General San Martín.

1. Parque General San Martín (Carlos Thays, 1896) & Cerro de la Gloria

Commissioned by the provincial government in 1896 and designed by celebrated French-Argentine landscape architect Carlos Thays (who also designed the parks of Buenos Aires), Parque General San Martín transformed a barren, rocky western alluvial piedmont into a romantic woodland of more than 500,000 trees watered by snowmelt canals:

• The 1908 Scottish Cast-Iron Gates (Portones del Parque), Lake & Rosedal: At the western end of Avenida Emilio Civit stand the three monumental wrought- and cast-iron gates forged in Glasgow, Scotland, by the Walter Macfarlane Saracen Foundry (purchased by Mendoza in 1908), topped by the Argentine coat of arms and a gilded Andean condor. Beyond the bronze statues of the Caballitos de Marly stretches the one-kilometre artificial Lago del Parque, bordered by the 1909 Club Mendoza de Regatas and the white classical pergolas of the 1919 Rosedal (Rose Garden).
• Cerro de la Gloria & the 1914 Monument to the Army of the Andes: Winding up the pine-shaded hill at the western edge of the park brings you to the summit of Cerro de la Gloria. Unveiled on 12 February 1914 by Uruguayan sculptor Juan Manuel Ferrari, the 14-ton bronze and stone Monumento al Ejército de los Andes honours General José de San Martín and the 5,400 soldiers, friar Luis Beltrán's foundry workers, and the Patricias Mendocinas who crossed the Andes passes in January 1817 to liberate Chile. Below the hill sit the Teatro Griego Frank Romero Day and the Estadio Malvinas Argentinas.

2. Walking the Five Symmetrical Plazas of the 1861 Seismic Grid

• Plaza Independencia (The Four-Block Central Heart): Designed as an open seismic refuge, the four-square-block central plaza features a musical fountain, an underground contemporary art museum (MMAMM), a weekend artisans' fair, and the 1925 Teatro Independencia.
• Plaza España, Plaza Italia, Plaza Chile & Plaza San Martín: Spaced two blocks diagonally from each corner of Plaza Independencia sit four smaller squares. Do not miss Plaza España (1949), whose fountains and benches are clad in hand-painted Seville majolica ceramics depicting scenes from Don Quixote and the foundation of Mendoza.

3. Best Time to Walk the Park & Plazas

Walk the five plazas in the morning, then head into Parque General San Martín in late afternoon.

4. Visiting the UNCuyo Campus

At the northern end of the park lies the leafy campus of the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo.

5. Reaching Cerro de la Gloria

Walk up the paved path in 25 minutes or ride the tourist bus up to the monument esplanade.