Argentina
Yavi
Golden baroque altarpieces hidden inside mud-brick walls on the Bolivian border, at 3,400 metres of altitude.
Yavi in Jujuy Province sits at 3,400 metres, five kilometres from the Bolivian border, and its church — the Parroquia de Nuestra Señora del Rosario, built in 1690 — contains the finest colonial altarpiece in Argentina: carved and gilded woodwork, onyx windows that let the light through in amber and gold, and a collection of seventeenth-century paintings that belong in a museum and have been sitting in this village for three centuries instead. The village itself has 500 residents and almost no tourism infrastructure, and the Marqués del Tojo mansion across the plaza from the church is still owned by the same family that built it in 1750.
Yavi is a colonial village in the extreme north of Jujuy Province, near the Bolivian border at La Quiaca, that served as the administrative and ecclesiastical centre of the Marquesado del Tojo — a vast colonial land grant extending across the Puna — from the seventeenth century. The Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Rosario, completed around 1690, is considered one of the finest examples of colonial baroque architecture in Argentina, with onyx windows (the only such installation in the country), a carved gold-leaf altarpiece, and a sacristy containing seventeenth-century paintings and silverwork of exceptional quality. The Marqués de Tojo mansion, adjacent to the church, is the best-preserved colonial civil building in northwestern Argentina and is privately owned by descendants of the original family, who occasionally open it for guided visits. The surrounding puna landscape, at 3,400 metres, gives Yavi the architectural quality of a Bolivian altiplano village without the tourist infrastructure.
Solo
Yavi requires no other context than the church — if you have any interest in colonial art or architecture, the altarpiece alone justifies the drive from Jujuy to La Quiaca. The village's completeness — the church, the mansion, the plaza, the puna setting — rewards an afternoon and an overnight in the only hospedaje.
Couple
Combining Yavi with La Quiaca on the Bolivian border gives a full day at 3,400 metres on the edge of two countries — the colonial church in the morning, the Bolivian market in La Quiaca in the afternoon, and the puna landscape under a full-altitude sky both. The drive from Jujuy is spectacular.
- The Iglesia de San Francisco de Paula (1690) has windows of translucent onyx instead of glass — the interior glows orange in morning light.
- The gilded altarpieces inside incorporate Andean imagery: sun symbols and maize worked into baroque designs.
- The village sits 10km from La Quiaca on the Bolivian border — two countries separated by a bridge over a shallow ravine.
- The church is one of three colonial baroque churches in Jujuy with National Historical Monument status.
Llama charqui and potato stew in a puna comedor, the fire crackling against the altitude chill.
Coca tea and simple bread in one of the hamlet's few small eateries.
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