La Linda — colonial city at 1,200m, gateway to the altiplano and cloud forests
Salta, known as La Linda ('The Beautiful'), is Argentina's most handsome colonial city — a compact centre of salmon-pink baroque churches, tiled plazas, and excellent empanadas at altitudes that give the clear Andean light a particular quality. It sits at the crossroads of three very different landscapes: the lush Yungas cloud forests to the east, the high-altitude puna (altiplano) to the west, and the dramatic quebrada gorges of Jujuy to the north. The Train to the Clouds climbs to 4,220m through 29 bridges, 21 tunnels, and 13 viaducts.
Salta was founded in 1582 as a Spanish administrative centre for the silver route between Potosí and Buenos Aires. The city played a significant role in Argentina's independence wars — General Martín Miguel de Güemes led a guerrilla campaign from Salta that tied down Spanish royalist forces; he remains the city's great hero and his statue dominates the central plaza. The colonial architecture survived largely intact because Salta was never significantly industrialised, remaining a regional market and administrative centre.