Estancia of Alta Gracia and Estancia of Jesús María
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
287 km
Riding-time estimate
5 h 18
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 287 km round trip from Alta Gracia - roughly 5 h 18 in the saddle. The stops in between: Jesuit Block and Estancias of Córdoba, Estancia of Caroya, Estancia of Santa Catalina and Estancia of Jesús María. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Estancia of Alta Gracia
Alta Gracia sits where the Córdoba plains begin to buckle into the Sierras Chicas, and its Jesuit estancia is the reason the town exists. The Jesuits established the estate in the seventeenth century, and by the eighteenth it was a thriving enterprise: a church, a residence around a cloister, workshops, and an ingenious dam with a reservoir feeding irrigation canals. It was part of the great network of Jesuit properties around Córdoba, collectively a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000, which funded the university and college in the city.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Estancia of Alta Gracia is where the day begins. Next is Jesuit Block and Estancias of Córdoba.
2. Jesuit Block and Estancias of Córdoba
Córdoba is Argentina's second city, a university town of about a million and a half people that has a faintly rebellious reputation. At its centre is the Manzana Jesuítica, the Jesuit Block, a group of buildings from the seventeenth century that includes the church of the Compañía, the old Jesuit college and the university, one of the oldest in the Americas, founded in 1613. The church has a remarkable wooden ceiling shaped like an upturned ship's hull, built by a Flemish Jesuit craftsman, with joinery that shows no nails.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Jesuit Block and Estancias of Córdoba comes up 40 km in. Next is Estancia of Caroya.
3. Estancia of Caroya
The Jesuits ran their farms like small empires. In the seventeenth century the Society of Jesus built a chain of estancias around the city of Cordoba, in the centre of Argentina, which supported the university and the college in town with grain, cattle, wine and mules, and these, together with the Jesuit Block in Cordoba itself, were inscribed on the World Heritage list in 2000. The Estancia of Caroya, founded in 1616, was the first of them, and its low, thick-walled buildings, with their long arcaded gallery, courtyard and a chapel, look out over a plain bordered by the hills of the Sierras Chicas.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
80 km in you reach Estancia of Caroya. Next is Estancia of Santa Catalina.
4. Estancia of Santa Catalina
The Jesuits were more than priests. In seventeenth-century Córdoba, in the heart of what is now Argentina, they ran a university, a network of missions and a string of estancias, ranches whose profits paid for their schools. Santa Catalina, founded in 1622 in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas, was the biggest of them, and the buildings you see today are a handsome cluster of church, cloister, workshops and quarters set around a quiet courtyard. The church, with a baroque front of whitewashed stone and a bell tower, was completed in the mid-eighteenth century, shortly before the Spanish crown expelled the order from its colonies in 1767.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Estancia of Santa Catalina, about halfway. Next is Estancia of Jesús María.
5. Estancia of Jesús María
In the hills north of Cordoba, in Argentina, there is a row of old Jesuit estancias, the ranches that paid for the order's missions and schools in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The one at Jesus Maria dates from 1618, and with the Jesuit Block in Cordoba city and four other estancias, it forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 2000. The Jesuits ran these properties as farms, workshops and vineyards, with indigenous and African labour, and they prospered until King Carlos III expelled the order from Spanish territory in 1767.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 287 km.
Leg by leg
Estancia of Alta Gracia to Jesuit Block and Estancias of Córdoba
Estancia of Alta Gracia → Jesuit Block and Estancias of Córdoba is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jesuit Block and Estancias of Córdoba to Estancia of Caroya
Jesuit Block and Estancias of Córdoba → Estancia of Caroya is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Estancia of Caroya to Estancia of Santa Catalina
Estancia of Caroya → Estancia of Santa Catalina is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Estancia of Santa Catalina to Estancia of Jesús María
Estancia of Santa Catalina → Estancia of Jesús María is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Estancia of Jesús María to back through Estancia of Santa Catalina
Estancia of Jesús María → back through Estancia of Santa Catalina is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Estancia of Santa Catalina to back through Estancia of Caroya
back through Estancia of Santa Catalina → back through Estancia of Caroya is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Estancia of Caroya to back through Jesuit Block and Estancias of Córdoba
back through Estancia of Caroya → back through Jesuit Block and Estancias of Córdoba is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Jesuit Block and Estancias of Córdoba to Estancia of Alta Gracia
back through Jesuit Block and Estancias of Córdoba → Estancia of Alta Gracia is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.