Officially founded in 1755 on the site of a shrine containing a tiny ceramic figure of the Virgin,
Luján , some 70km west of Buenos Aires, is now one of the major religious centres in Latin America. The
Virgin of Luján is the patron saint of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay and the epic basilica erected in her honour in 1887 in Luján attracts around five million visitors a year. This soaring neo-Gothic edifice is one of the most imposing - though not perhaps one of the most beautiful - churches in Argentina. It's perhaps more interesting, though, as a huge machine dedicated to perpetuating the cult of the virgin, the centrepiece of a town which seems designed as a kind of antechamber to her sanctuary.
Luján also makes much of its almost accidental role in various events in Argentine history . In 1806, Viceroy Sobremonte stopped by when fleeing from the British invasions of that year and left the city's revenues in the building now known as the Casa del Virrey, before carrying on to Córdoba. The money was soon captured by the British, who took it to London, from where the money was never returned. Somewhat fittingly, the two leaders of the invasion, General Beresford and Colonel Pack, were later incarcerated in Luján's cabildo. Various documents and objects relating to these events are exhibited in the town's other major attraction, the vast Complejo Museográfico Enrique Udaondo , a kind of multiplex museum with an important historical section as well as Argentina's largest transport museum.
Away from the museums and the basilica, all grouped around the town's central square, Luján is pretty much like any other provincial town. It has its elegant early twentieth-century town houses and its slightly less elegant modern constructions. The town is actually quite large, with around 90,000 inhabitants, but its identity seems strangely subsumed by the Goliath in its midst. That said, Luján has a leafy riverside park, plenty of picnic spots and couple of decent campsites though its hotels and restaurants have little of the charm of nearby San Antonio de Areco. A notable exception is the town's highly rated restaurant, L'Eau Vive which, in keeping with its location, is run by nuns.
If you want to get a real flavour of Luján in full religious swing, you should visit at the weekend, when seven or eight Masses are held a day - but, unless you want to take part, try to avoid visiting during the annual pilgrimages, when the town becomes seriously full. The major pilgrimages take place on October 5, when up to a million young people walk here from Buenos Aires; May 8, the day of the Coronation of the Virgin; and December 8 when smaller, informal pilgrimages mark the Day of the Immaculate Conception.
The TownIt would be perverse to visit Luján without taking a look at the Virgin - and, at busy times, all you need to do to get there is follow the flow. The town's main drag, the Avenida Nuestra Señora de Luján, rolls up like a Tarmac carpet to the door of the Basilica , at the far end of Luján's main square, Plaza Belgrano. The Avenida, which links the basilica with the bus terminal, three blocks north, is lined by stalls selling Virgin paraphernalia. Manned by official-looking white-coated vendors, the stalls get ever thicker on the ground as you head down the avenida and by the time you reach the basilica, the whole place seems awash with candles, clocks and key rings emblazoned with the Virgin's image. Plaza Belgrano itself is a wide, rather bare expanse of paving slabs adorned only by an equestrian statue of General Belgrano. Away from the plaza, such minimalism gets short shrift as the faux-colonial arcade which flanks Avenida Nuestra Señora de Luján slugs it out with the neo-Gothic basilica in a battle of architectural pastiches. The Complejo Museográfico is located in various mustard and white colonial buildings - most notably the cabildo - around the north and west of the plaza.
To the east of the basilica lies Luján's commercial and administrative quarter, centred on calles San Martín and Bartolomé Mitre, which connect Plaza Belgrano to Plaza Colón , site of the municipalidad. To the west lies Parque Ameghino, located on the banks of the Río Luján and containing restaurants, amusement arcades and picnic areas.
