3 Best Sights in The Northwest, Argentina

The 1907 Casa de Gobierno (Government House) fronts the plaza on San Martín and contains the provincial government offices. A first-floor hall, the Salón de la Bandera, displays the original Argentine flag donated by General Belgrano in 1813, a gift to the city after it cooperated with the Belgrano-headed Exodus of Jujuy during the War of Independence. Entry is on Sarmiento street. The flag was replaced a few years later by the current white and sky-blue stripe version, and the one here is now used as the national coat of arms.

Humahuaca's cabildo (town hall), the most striking building in the village, has a beautifully colored and richly detailed clock tower. Each day at noon crowds fill the small main square outside to watch a life-size mechanized statue of San Francisco Solano pop out of the tower—it's kitschy fun and one of the world's few clock performances. You can't enter the cabildo, but you can peer into the courtyard.

The whitewashed town hall, first constructed in 1582 and rebuilt many times since, used to house Salta's municipal government. Not only a colonial gem in itself, the Cabildo—the most well-preserved council building in Argentina—is home to the Museo Histórico del Norte, which includes a relevant collection of pre-Hispanic stone sculptures, as well as religious artifacts and a rather obscure assortment of vintage cars in the back garden.