Historical & Cultural Landmarks in South America

Colonia del Sacramento is located at the tip of a short peninsula with a strategic position on the north shore of Uruguay's Río de la Plata. The Historic Quarter is a fusion of Portuguese, Spanish and post-colonial styles. The buildings date from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Las Lajas is a Roman Catholic basilica church built inside the canyon of the Guáitara River in southern Colombia. It has been a tourism and pilgrimage destination since the eighteenth century. The town of Ipiales sits on the river's banks, 9,500 ft above sea level.

Brasília is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. Laid out along an east-west axis crossed by a north-south axis, curved to follow the topography as a transportation thoroughfare, Brasília is a definitive example of 20th century modernist urbanism.

Caleta Tortel is a picturesque lumber town in Capitán Prat Province, Chile's eighth-largest and fourth-least-populated province. With no conventional streets, the town features an intricate walkway system made of cypress wood, which has become part of the town's culture and a local tourist attraction.

Located in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of the Los Lagos Region in southern Chile, Chiloé Island is the largest island of the Chiloé Archipelago. From pastoral landscapes to iconic wooden churches, Chiloé is known for its distinctive folklore, cuisine, and architecture.

The Churches of Chiloé are found in the Chiloé Archipelago, off the coast of Chile's Los Lagos Region. Here are about 70 churches built within the framework of a "Circular Mission" introduced by the Jesuits in the 17th century and continued by the Franciscans in the 18th and 19th centuries.

As many as 80 simple churches were built on Chile's high-altitude Altiplano plateau. These "Churches of the Altiplano" were built by Spanish missionaries seeking to convert the area's local people. Today, some 50 small adobe churches survive in the settlements along this passage.

Potosí is the example par excellence of a major silver mine of the modern era, reputed to be the world’s largest industrial complex in the 16th century. A small pre-Hispanic-period hamlet perched in the Bolivian Andes, Potosí became an "Imperial City" following the visit of Francisco de Toledo in 1572.

Quito, Ecuador's capital, sits high in the Andean foothills. Constructed on the foundations of an ancient Incan city, it’s known for its well-preserved colonial center, rich with 16th- and 17th-century churches and other structures blending European, Moorish and indigenous styles.

Ciudad Perdida is an ancient Tairona indigenous town and archaeological site carved into Colombia's isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountainside. It is believed to have been founded about 800 CE, some 650 years earlier than Machu Picchu.