Living in Casco Viejo is like living in a time machine, but one that goes back to go forward. Weirdly enough, that is exactly what we do here! The fun thing is that, depending on how deep you dig, you can find that the same questions may have had different answers, depending on when it was asked. Yes, it sounds too much like today´s economic policies, I agree! but here is an example…
The first one is La Merced Church. It used to be the land door to enter Casco Viejo into the town of San Felipe. As the area developed later on, the wall was taken down and replaced with beautiful homes and thriving commerce, which is only now being restored.
The light blue building you see there is called Montefiori, which is at Plaza Herrera, historically called Plaza del Triunfo. In colonial days, as in most plazas, it used to be a bull fight ring. You see here the photo of the building at the very corner. Then a photo of it about 4 years ago, and a brand new restoration (which today hosts a restaurant that opens to the plaza and residential on the top).
