Perhaps one of my favourite hidden discoveries in Argentina was the chapel of Guido Buffo, located not far from the estancia I was living on we would ride across the pampas taking our experienced riders down on a Sunday morning to marvel at the wanders of the masterpiece.

An Italian immigrant, he married a local girl Elenor and together they had one daughter. They both died young and so consumed by his grief he decided to create a chapel in their honour. Reminding me of my grandfather, or perhaps the more famous Da Vinci with his acute attention to detail, artistic abilities and mathematician’s brain he set about building this chapel.

Alongside the artistic elements of the chapel he add three pendulums (earth quake measures) and used astrology as well. Painting murals of his wife and daughter he then built windows on the top of the building and on the day of his wife birthday the sun will shine through the glass lighting up her face. The building itself is built in the shape of a local flower.

The metal discs on the floor represent the constellation of stars on the night his wife died, there is a pianola which has pipes coming out into the hills circling so when he played the music it would echo around the sierras.
Although Guido died before he could finish this memorial, his attention to details in the plans leave you with the feeling like it was only right for him to never totally finish.I rode here on a hot summers day, and leaving our horses tied up in one of our staffs gardens we walked up towards the church, and had the guided tour. The tour is in Spanish and doesn’t take long but if you can manage it, it is the only way to truly discover this incredible site.

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