Casuchas de la Cordillera

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Casuchas de la Cordillera

As Casuchas de la Cordillera eight overall shelters from the 18th century on the Argentine - Chilean border in the Andes at Paso de la Cumbre referred. The three preserved huts located on the Argentine side were declared a Monumento histórico on February 16, 1973 by decree N ° 1299 . The official name of the Argentine casuchas is Casuchas de Uspallata , other names are Casas de la Cordillera Nevada , Casuchas del Rey and Casas del Rey .

location

The huts built on the Argentine side are or were in today's places Las Cuevas , Paramillo , Los Puquios and Punta de Vacas in the department of Las Heras in the province of Mendoza . Of these four shelters, only the one at Punta de Vacas no longer exists; the preserved huts are at an altitude between 2500  m and 3200  m . On the Chilean side, huts were built at Ojo del Agua , Juncalillo , La Calavera and at the top of the pass. Of these four, the last two are only in ruins, the hut at Ojo del Agua no longer exists.

description

The original eight shelters had certain characteristics in common: They had a domed roof , a height of about five meters and an entrance door on the east side about two meters high, where the entrances were best protected from winds. The area of ​​the preserved buildings on the Argentine side is between 21 and 27 m² per refuge including its walls. The floor plans are either square or circular, the floors are made of smoothed mortar or bricks.

The bricks that were used to build the huts come from Los Andes , from where they were brought up into the mountains on mules.

history

The Casuchas de la Cordillera were built between 1765 and 1770 at the behest of Spanish rule in Chile and were used to maintain and secure mail and passenger traffic between Santiago de Chile and Mendoza , which was affected by difficult climatic conditions for much of the year.

The project to build a series of shelters along the way across the Andes was presented to Governor Antonio Guill y Gonzaga by Ambrosio O'Higgins in 1765 . O'Higgins and Juan Garland were commissioned to build the cottages. The independence movements at the beginning of the 19th century ultimately led to the fact that the huts were poorly maintained and supplied, but were partly preserved true to the original. Only in 1865, for the centenary of the casuchas , was renovation work carried out and two new huts built, which are no longer preserved.

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