Museo Ralli (Beverly Hills) & Colonial San Fernando de Maldonado Guide

Just fifteen minutes inland from the beaches of Playa Mansa and Playa Brava, two cultural stops offer a rewarding contrast to the coastline: the surrealist galleries and sculpture courtyards of Museo Ralli in the leafy parkland of Beverly Hills, and the 18th-century Spanish military fortifications of neighbouring San Fernando de Maldonado.

1. Museo Ralli Punta del Este (Barrio Beverly Hills, Opened 1988)

• The First of the World's Five Ralli Museums: Tucked inside the quiet, pine-and-eucalyptus residential avenues of Beverly Hills (Calle Los Arrayanes), Museo Ralli Punta del Este was founded in 1988 by banker and art collector Harry Recanati and his wife Martine as the flagship of the five Ralli Museums worldwide (followed by Santiago de Chile, Caesarea in Israel, and Marbella in Spain). Designed by Uruguayan architects Marita Casciani and Manuel Quinteiro, the 6,000-square-metre whitewashed building wraps around sunlit Spanish-colonial-style courtyards paved in marble and terracotta.
• Salvador Dalí Bronzes, Botero & Latin American Surrealism (Free Admission): Walking unhurriedly through the galleries (there are no guided ropes, and admission is completely free; check the official Museo Ralli portal for seasonal Tuesday-to-Sunday afternoon hours), you encounter one of the largest private collections of contemporary Latin American figurative and surrealist painting (including works by Roberto Matta, Wifredo Lam, Antonio Seguí, and Herman Braun-Vega) alongside interior patios populated by monumental bronze sculptures by Salvador Dalí, John Robinson, Volti, and Juarez Machado.

2. Historic San Fernando de Maldonado (Founded 1755)

• Cuartel de Dragones (1771 to 1797) & Young José Artigas: Seamless with Punta del Este's northern avenues, the departmental capital of Maldonado was founded in 1755 by Governor José Joaquín de Viana to guard the entrance of the Río de la Plata against Portuguese expansion. Four blocks from the central square stands the stone wall and tiled roofs of the Cuartel de Dragones y Blandengues, an 18th-century Spanish royal dragoon barracks where Uruguay's future national hero, José Gervasio Artigas, began his military service in 1797.
• Catedral de San Fernando, Torre del Vigía (1800) & Museo Mazzoni: Around Plaza San Fernando, admire the Neoclassical Catedral de San Fernando (begun in 1801 and completed in 1895), the 13-metre brick Torre del Vigía (1800) from which Spanish sentries scanned the bay for enemy sails, and the 18th-century rooms of the Museo Regional Francisco Mazzoni.