Casa Rosada
Perón, Evita, Maradona and Galtieri have all addressed the crowds from the balcony of the unmissable Casa de Gobierno, otherwise known as the
Casa Rosada, or “Pink House”, the rose-hued government palace that occupies the east end of the square. The practice of painting buildings pink was common in the nineteenth century, particularly in the countryside, where you’ll still see many
estancias this colour, and was originally achieved with the use of ox blood, for both decorative and practical reasons – the blood acted as a fixative for the whitewash to which it was added. After being a muted rose for many years, followed by a brief phase in a shocking pink – a legacy of the flamboyant Menem era – the building was restored in 2007 to a deep puce colour, patented as “Casa de Gobierno pink”. It has been strikingly lit at night since the bicentenary celebrations in 2010.
The present structure, a typically Argentine blend of French and Italian Renaissance styles, developed in an organic fashion. It stands on the site of the city’s Spanish fort, begun in 1594 and converted in 1776 to the viceroy’s palace. In 1862, President Bartolomé Mitre moved government ministries to the building, remodelling it once again. The final touch – the central arch – was added in 1885, unifying the facade. You can explore the building on a guided visit (online pre-booking required; bring ID). Highlights of the tour include the Salón de los Bustos, the Patio de las Palmeras and the famous balcony.
Behind the Casa Rosada, Plaza Colón features a gigantic Argentine flag and used to house a Carrara marble statue of Cristóbal Colón (Christopher Columbus). Former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, however, took umbrage with Cristóbal, replacing him with a 15m-tall bronze Juana Azurduy, a Bolivian freedom fighter, though Macri has also since removed her.
Along with temporary exhibitions, the museum hosts Ejercicio Plástico (“Plastic Exercise”), a sensual mural painted in 1933 by the Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros, assisted by Argentine painters Spilimbergo, Berni and Castagnino (all three of whom contributed to the fantastic frescoes that decorate the Galerías Pacífico mall in the microcentro) and the Uruguayan Enrique Lázaro. To enter the capsule containing it you must don protective footwear covers. At the far end of the museum there is a decent café and a gift shop where you can treat yourself to Casa Rosada-related souvenirs.
Museo de la Casa Rosada
Uniformed grenadiers guard the Casa Rosada’s own museum, the
Museo del Bicentenario, which opened in May 2011, a year after the national bicentenary it was intended to celebrate. An impressive subterranean structure behind the presidential palace, enhanced by handsome brick arches, it covers the role of the Casa Rosada in the city’s history, highlighting the various constructions occupying the site and the presidency past and present. Posters, clothing, furniture, writing instruments and even porcelain and carriages used by various holders of the office since 1810, help illustrate this slick propaganda.
Cabildo
At the opposite end of the square from the Casa Rosada is the
Cabildo, the only colonial-era civil construction to survive the rebuilding craze of the 1880s. Its simple, unadorned lines, green and white shuttered facade and colonnaded front, dating from the mid-eighteenth century, stand in stark contrast to the more ornate nineteenth-century buildings around it. The Spanish administrative headquarters, it now houses a small museum whose modest collection includes standards captured during the 1806 British invasion, watercolours by Enrique Pellegrini and original plans of the city and the fort. Although the museum was painstakingly restored at great cost in time for the 2010 bicentenary (aptly so, since it is dedicated to the May Revolution), it is the building’s interior that makes a visit worthwhile, in particular the upper galleries’ exhibits of various relics from the colonial period onwards, such as huge keys and sturdy wooden doors. Behind the Cabildo, a patio area with an ornamental well hosts a café and small artisans’ fair.
Catedral Metropolitana
The
Catedral Metropolitana, with its severe Neoclassical facade, is not a particularly beautiful church, but it’s in the spotlight for being the most recent place of employment for Jorge Bergoglio – also known as Pope Francis I – before he moved to the Vatican. This, its central location, its status as Buenos Aires’ main cathedral and its housing the mausoleum to Independence hero General José de San Martín inside – solemnly guarded, and frequently mobbed by schoolchildren on history trips – ensures a steady stream of visitors.
The cathedral assumed its final form over many years. Built and rebuilt since the sixteenth century, the present building was completed in the mid-nineteenth century, complete with Venetian mosaic floors, gilded columns and a silver-plated altar. The twelve columns at the entrance represent the twelve Apostles; above them sits a carved tympanum whose bas-relief depicts the arrival of Jacob and his family in Egypt.
Naturally, it became the focus of jubilant celebrations and international attention when Bergoglio, ex-Archbishop of Buenos Aires, was anointed pope in 2013. He is the first Latin American pontiff and the first to hail from outside Europe in 1300 years.
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