Estancia Los Yngleses

Mementos of Los Yngleses’ past –old photographs, documents, and medals-, decorate the walls of the comfortable, unashamedly old-fashioned office.

This château in the style of Louis XIII and its thousand-acre park are located not outside Paris but within two hundred miles of Buenos Aires, Argentine wealth was such at the turn of the century that cattlemen could freely indulge their fancies in creating their ideal homes.

The rooms enclosing San Jose’s second patio included the kitchen, a private secretary’s office, and quarters for aides-de-camp, governess, housemaids, and cook. The wellhead was carved from a single piece of marble and stands over a cistern that originally collected rainwater. Orange or lemon trees were common in such courtyards; here the grapevine, growing on an ironwork trellis, provides welcome shade in summer.

Santa Catalina’s cloistered garden is overlooked by the church dome and lantern. Members of the owners’ families, some 150 people, have the right to live here.

Estancia Pampa Grande

The big, old-fashioned stove in this spacious, down-t-earth kitchen is fueled by wood. The northwest region of Argentina boasts a number of traditional dishes, among them frangollo and chilcán, whose principal ingredient is maize.