Plaza San Martin (San Martin Square), Cordoba (must see)

Plaza San Martin is the main civic square of the historic centre and one of the best places for tourists to understand how public life developed from the colonial period to the present. Before it became a landscaped square, the area was used for markets, fairs, punishments, and bullfights. In 1901, Carlos Thays redesigned it with ordered paths, lawns, benches, and trees, creating much of the shaded layout visitors see today.

At the centre stands the equestrian monument to General José de San Martín, the independence leader remembered across Argentina and much of South America. The sculpture gives the square its name and forms its main visual focus. It is often used for commemorations, school visits, gatherings, and civic ceremonies, linking the plaza to independence history and public memory.

The buildings around the square add several layers of history. The cathedral stands out for its towers, dome, painted interiors, and small carved “chuchis” on the façade. Nearby, the Cabildo recalls colonial government, justice, administration, and imprisonment. Its appearance also changed over time: a large clock tower once rose above it, but it was later dismantled during restoration works in the late 1930s, as part of an effort to recover the building’s older colonial appearance.

The square also carries more recent and difficult memories. A section of the former Cabildo complex was used by the D2 intelligence department as an illegal detention and torture centre during the 1976–1983 dictatorship. Today, a nearby memory museum recalls this history. Around the square, tourists, students, workers, and residents still gather, linking difficult memory with everyday urban life.