The legend of the city of Cesares

"The city of the Césares is enchanted in the Andean Cordillera by a big lake. It is visible on Holy Fridays how the tops of its towers and the roofs of its houses shine in the distance, since they are pure gold and silver…" This legend about the "City of the Césares" appeared in South America during the Spanish conquest. Probably these fantastic narrations about the magnific city hidden in the Cordillera aroused from a lost expedition of Francisco César, who left from the river Plate to the South in 1526. Encouraged by greed, numerous expeditions left in search for the "enchanted city". In 1620, Captain Juan Fernandez from the island of Chilo‚ crossed the Andes and arrived at lake Nahuel Huapi. The narration of this expedition is the first chronicle written about the region. In 1627, Fernandez went on another expedition to the North of Neuquén in charge of two hundred men to conduct a MALOCA, an assault by surprise to the Indians to rob them and make them war prisoners. "And he was so successful that he got a hundred and thirty pieces and thirty horses, and hanged from trees the Indians whose hands he could not see, loosing only one soldier who died fighting in a path."