Salta

Diego de Almagro's expedition crossed the plains west of the present city in 1536 on its way to Chile, skirmishing with the peoples of the valley. The city itself was founded on 16 April 1582 by Hernando de Lerma, who meant it as an outpost on the long road between Lima and Buenos Aires. Its position made it rich: Salta prospered as a supplier of goods to the silver city of Potosí, and a seat of colonial authority whose Cabildo was rebuilt in the late 18th century.

In the War of Independence Salta lay on the front line against royalist armies coming from Peru. Manuel Belgrano defeated them at the Battle of Salta in 1813, and between 1816 and 1821 the local leader Martín Miguel de Güemes, working with José de San Martín, defended the city and the north with gaucho guerrillas. Güemes died of his wounds in June 1821 and became the city's great hero.

The city came out of the wars in political disarray and financially bankrupt, a condition that lasted for much of the 19th century. Recovery came in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with Italian, Spanish, British and Arab immigrants — Syrians and Lebanese above all — who revived trade and farming, and with the railway. In recent decades Salta has grown into the seventh-largest city in Argentina and the main tourist gateway to the north-west.

Salta is often called the most Spanish-looking city in Argentina, with an arcaded plaza and churches that remind Spanish visitors of Andalusia. Its culture, though, is a blend of Spanish, gaucho and Indigenous Andean traditions, and the city is proud of that identity. Gauchos turn out on horseback for the Güemes anniversary in June, and the poncho salteño is the best known of Argentina's provincial ponchos.

Faith is central. Every September the Lord and the Virgin of the Miracle, the city's patrons, are carried in procession from the cathedral, and pilgrims arrive on foot from across the province. Carnival, with comparsas and murgas from districts such as Villa Cristina, and an April culture festival fill other parts of the calendar.

Music is the city's other great tradition. Salta is one of the homes of Argentine folk music, and its peñas — restaurants and clubs with live folk music — are concentrated along Balcarce Street. Football is followed passionately, above all Juventud Antoniana, Gimnasia y Tiro and Central Norte, and Salta players are known nationally for baseball.

The city had about 630,000 people at the 2022 census and is the centre of the Lerma Valley metropolitan area, which holds more than half of the province's population. As the provincial capital it lives from government, commerce, education — the city has the National University of Salta and the Catholic University of Salta — health services and a large tourist trade, while the surrounding province farms tobacco, beans and sugar cane.

The centre keeps its colonial grid, offices and shops; around it spread residential districts from leafy Tres Cerritos to large newer neighbourhoods on the city's edges, and the metropolitan area takes in valley towns such as Cerrillos and Vaqueros. The provincial government moved its offices to the Grand Bourg civic centre in 1987 to relieve the congested centre.

The day has a long midday break: shops close for the siesta and reopen into the evening, when the plaza and the pedestrian streets fill again and dinner rarely starts early.

Salta's food is the cooking of the Andean north-west, built on maize, potatoes, squash and beef. The empanada salteña is its pride: small and juicy, filled with knife-cut beef, potato, hard-boiled egg, chives and pepper, and baked in a clay oven or fried. Since 2003 the city has marked 4 April as Empanada Salteña Day.

Maize appears everywhere. Humitas are fresh maize paste with onion and cheese cooked in maize husks; tamales are maize dough filled with meat and wrapped in husks; locro, a thick stew of maize, beans and squash with sausage and other meats, is a regional staple. Quesillo, a soft fresh cheese, is eaten with honey or cayote, a squash preserve, as dessert.

Wine comes from Cafayate, a few hours to the south, and Torrontés, the floral white grape of the Calchaquí valleys, is poured in restaurants all over the city. Salta also has its own local beer. The peñas of Balcarce Street serve regional food with live folk music, and the cafés under the arcades of Plaza 9 de Julio are the place for coffee and medialunas.