Colonia del Sacramento has a brutal history that dates back to 1680 when a Spanish military man with the nickname of "The Saint," which translates to El Santo in Spanish conquered Colonia, which was then called Colonia do Sacramento. The real name of the Spanish military man is a lengthy one with Marcos Jose de Garro Senei de Artola. The people who lived in Colonia del Sacramento were Portuguese and the small town was founded by a Portuguese man named Admiral Manuel Lobo. Admiral Lobo acquired Colonia by an order that was drawn up by a Lisbon Judicature. Colonia was a perfect place for the Portuguese to smuggle illegal substances over to Buenos Aires, which was on the other side of a bank that was owned by the Spanish, which was called Rio de la Plata. In the early 1700's Jose de Garro conquered the area of Colonia away from Portugal and set up shop in Buenos Aires before it was taken back by Portugal.
Jose de Garro fought for the area again in a siege that lasted for five long months and won it back in 1705. It was a bloody fight that began as a tug of war between the crowns of Portugal and the Spanish. The Portuguese won the area back again by a Peace Treaty called Treaty of Utrecht. Jose de Garro and his army started an onslaught which became the well-known battle of the Spanish-Portuguese War, which lasted for two years from 1735 to 1737 in which de Garro lost.
If that was not enough, more treaties such as Treaty of Madrid made the ownership change back to the Spanish again in 1750, which it was then taken back again by Portugal, and then in 1777 a Treaty called Treaty of San Iidefonso took the area back again where it stayed for awhile with the Spanish before being taken back again by Portugal. The area was finally integrated into Brazil in 1816. Portugal's United Kingdom merged with Algarves and Brazil and they seized the whole area of Uruguay and called it Cisplatina Province. Uruguay was also called the Banda Oriental before it was seized and changed over to the new name of Cisplatina Province. The only part of Colonia that has remained the same is the Barrio Historico, which was the historic part of Colonia. It has still kept its original cobble stone streets. The rest of Colonia was distended to the east and the north. The parts of the areas that the Spanish had taken over during the battle that lasted for over 150 years was turned into a larger orthogonal calles, which had much larger streets.
When travelers have come to Colonia del Sacramento within the last four hundred years, they see that very little has changed when it comes to the architecture of the small quaint town. You'll instantly notice the ressemblance when you stroll into one of Portugal's cities. The only thing that tourists do not see are remnants of the bloody battle and turbulent past that it once held. Now the place is filled with historic structures that make many people feel as if they boarded a time machine. In 1995 the Unesco proclaimed the historic section of Barrio Historico as a World Heritage Site. The noticeable differences that residents and tourists can see when the town kept changing hands, are the differences in the street. The Portuguese built streets made from cobble that had a drain jetting in-between. The Spanish people built streets where the drains run on both sides.