The ruins of a Jesuit mission church in the Ciudad Vieja neighbourhood are among the few remnants of pre-earthquake Mendoza. The 1861 quake levelled the city entirely; these walls survived in partial form and have been maintained ever since as a monument to the disaster. Beside the ruins stands a small chapel, and the surrounding streets preserve the old street pattern of colonial Mendoza. It is a sobering reminder of how completely the present-day city was rebuilt from scratch.
Ruinas de San Francisco
Earthquake ruins preserved as memorial to 1861 disaster
A story
The 1861 earthquake that destroyed Mendoza killed around 6,000 people — a third of the city's population — in under two minutes. The Jesuit mission church was one of the few structures left partially standing, and its ruins were preserved as a deliberate memorial to the disaster.