If the columns of the gallery in a semicircle that end in a reproduction of basilica leave doubts, the similarity of Pope Francis’ sculpture and the statues of pontifical Swiss guards clarify them: there is a replica of the Vatican in a small town in northern Argentina.
Located in Fail, a municipality of about 50,000 inhabitants in Tucumán province, 1,200 km from Buenos Aires, the reduced reproduction of the São Pedro square and Basilica was inaugurated in January 2013, even before Pope Francis’ election that year.
The site houses the municipality’s funeral rooms to serve the population without financial resources to pay family service. “That is why these rooms were built in a religious and peaceful place,” he explains to CNN Fáviallalá Tourism Director, David Acevedo.
In 2015, the São Pedro Tucumana Basilica gained a statue of Pope Francis. The sculpture currently undergoes maintenance, and it is expected to be presented in the veneration gallery – a place to meters, where there are dozens sculptures of Santos – before being placed again in the local “Vatican”.
According to Acevedo, the inauguration of about eight sculptures of life and work of the Argentine Pope, who died a week ago, is scheduled for May 11.
Known as the “City of Replicas”, Failhalla is famous for the delicious empanadas and for hundreds of statues and replicas of historical places.
In the Gallery of Veneration, an open ride where more than 50 saints are reproduced, there is also a statue of Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Governed since 1995 by the twins Enrique and José Orellana, who take turns in power, the city of Faillalla also organizes the “Feast of the Twins” with brothers from different parts of Argentina.
“They say that twins always attract other twins and replicas and so they were creating replicas here, and the reproduction of St. Peter’s Square, this tourist attraction here,” explains the municipal director of tourism.
The visit, which can thrill some, has the potential to generate laughs, for the artistic quality of uniform and randomness of sculptures – ranging from pies to dinosaurs.
The fact is that the municipality bets on the abundance of replicas to try to consolidate with an unusual and increasingly religious tourist destination.
This content was originally published in Meet Argentina City that holds wakes within the Vatican replica on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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