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Buildings around Plaza de Mayo
The Edificio Libertador, the army headquarters designed by military engineers and completed in 1942, is
visible from Plaza de Mayo. Its imposing aspect and
location adjacent to the civil service headquarters symbolize the
predominance of military power in Argentine politics until 1983. Heading the other way on the small plaza
across from the entrance to the Casa Rosada via Calle Rivadavia,
there is a mighty bronze Monumento a Juan de
Garay, Buenos Aires's founder. The monument, by German Gustav H. Eberlein, is adjacent to a growth from an
oak tree from Guernica, planted by the Basque community in 1919.
On the corner of Rivadavia and 25 de Mayo, an anonymous-looking building covered with antennae is home to the
Secretaría de Inteligencia del Estado (State Intelligence Agency). On the adjacent corner, Banco de la Nación
Argentina stands out with its facade, a monumentalist-style work of
Argentine architect Alejandro Bustillo
that was completed in 1952. It is worth taking a look inside at its 164-foot diameter octagonal dome, the
fourth-largest of its kind on the planet (after Rome's Saint Peter, its Ivory Coast copy and Washington's
Capital Building).
The Catedral Metropolitana (Metropolitain Cathedral), home of Buenos Aires's Archbishop, is the sixth building
erected on this site since the city's founding. All earlier constructions disappeared as a result of the
precariousness of adobe in humid cIimates. The neo-classical facade was designed in 1822 by Frenchman Prospere
Cafetín, and the frontispiece ornament, a representation of Jacob's reunion with his son Joseph, was
done by fellow Frenchman Joseph Dubourdieu and finished in 1863. The dome is covered with Pas de Calais glazed
tiles imported from France. Its interiors are done in an Italian-like Baroque style. One of the highlights is
the Mausoleo del Libertador José de San Martin by French sculptor Carriere Belleuse. The mausoleum is guarded
by soldiers of the Regimiento de Granaderos a Caballo. In the Nuestra Señora del Carmen chapel, there are
remembrances of the victims of the Shoah and of the bomb attack against the AMIA. The modern Curia building,
located next to the Catedral and forming a courtyard, is a replacement of its earlier version that was set on
fire and looted during the Revolution of June 16, 1955.
The Cabildo (City Council) is Plaza de Mayo's only remaining colonial building, although it is really a modern
version with little remaining from the original building, designed by Italian jesuit Andrea Bianchi and
completed in 1751. The original Cabildo had 11 arches, but 3 on each side have since been removed to open the
streets Avenida de Mayo and Diagonal Sur. Here, the Governmental Assembly which replaced the King of Spain
(dethroned by Napoleon) and his Buenos Aires based Viceroy was proclaimed on May 25, 1810. At the same time as
in Caracas, this Cabildo started the decline of the "empire where the sun never sets." The Museo de la
Revolución de Mayo has documents, paintings and objects of the time period but fails to express the magnitude of the events
that occurred here. Behind the Cabildo, there is a courtyard and passageway between Avenida de Mayo and Hipólito
Yrigoyen. On Thursdays and Fridays from 11 :00 to 18:00, there is an urban crafts fair.
| Tourism |
Starting at the Cathedral and Archbishop's Palace and the 17th. century Church of San Francisco with its 19th. century tower, forming a group of outstanding beauty, from there the range of tourist sights spreads out in all directions of Salta - Argentina.
Iguazu Falls - Cataratas del Iguazu - consists of some 275 separate waterfalls - in the rainy season there are as many as 350 - that send their white cascades plunging more than 200 feet onto the rocks below.
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Vacation Apartments in Buenos Aires - Argentina
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