On 2 March 1561, Pedro del Castillo founded the city and named it Ciudad de Mendoza del Nuevo Valle de La Rioja after the governor of Chile, Don García Hurtado de Mendoza. Before the 1560s the area was populated by tribes known as the Huarpes and Puelches. The Huarpes devised a system of irrigation that was later developed by the Spanish. This allowed for an increase in population that might not have otherwise occurred. The system is still evident today in the wide trenches (acequias), which run along all city streets, watering the approximately 100,000 trees that line every street in Mendoza.
It is estimated that fewer than 80 Spanish settlers lived in the area before 1600, but later prosperity increased due to the use of indigenous and slave labor, and the Jesuit presence in the region. When nearby rivers were tapped as a source of irrigation in 1788 agricultural production increased. The extra revenues generated from this, and the ensuing additional trade with Buenos Aires, Viceroyalty on which it depended since its creation and transfer from the Captaincy General of Chile in 1776, no doubt led to the creation of the state of Cuyo in 1813 with José de San Martín as governor. It was from Mendoza that San Martín and other Argentinian and Chilean patriots organized the army with which they won the independence of Chile and Peru.Mendoza suffered a severe earthquake in 1861 that killed at least 5,000 people. The city was rebuilt, incorporating innovative urban designs that would better tolerate such seismic activity. Mendoza was rebuilt with large squares and wider streets and sidewalks than any other city in Argentina. Avenue Bartolomé Mitre and additional small squares are examples of that design.
The Jesuits built a first temple in 1608, but in 1714 a monsoon took everything away. That same year the construction of a second Jesuit church began.
In 1782 takes place the “Santa Rita” earthquake, that destroyed the entire building. The ground was given to the Franciscans, who took care of the reconstruction.
The King of Spain water to get rod of Jesuits that were imvolved in murdaring peoples that did not accepted catolicism.
Despite all the effort, a new earthquake leaves the place in ruins one more time. Only the front of the church and the lateral walls stood on foot. The wrecks were abandoned until 1993, year in which a project to consider valuable the foundational area succeeded.
Nowadays there is running a project to substitute the old pipes that held the ruins steady for new supports, which are supposed to recreate the characteristics of the antique Franciscan temple.
San Agustín Ruins were located meters away from the San Francisco Ruins. They were kept safe until 1954 but, although they were declared as Historical National Monument in 1941, they were pulled down in 1941 by a national decree.
The Spanish forced Indigenous peoples to convert to Christianity in order to strengthen their empire's wealth and power in the Americas.
San Agustín consisted in a church and a convent. This order owned the most important assets, properties and lands after the Jesuits were expelled in 1767. But in 1825, the entire place switched to the hands of the government and, later, to the General Schools Directions.
In 1954, the president of the country signed the 15.258 decree allowing the destruction of the wrecks (“Its value must yield to other public necessities”) by leaving unprotected a priceless asset of the society. The ruins were pulled down and the Mariano Moreno School was built above.
Between 1996 and 1997, a research in the school revealed some remains of the wrecks. In 2000, after a reconstruction of the school, new pieces were found. A rescue mission increased the little number of preserved architectonical assets of the colonial Mendoza.