Buenos Aires: Palacio Álzaga Unzué: The most luxurious wedding gift in Argentina’s history
On May 8th, 1916, a large party was in Buenos Aires. Two offspring of the aristocracy, Félix Saturnino de Álzaga Unzué, 31, and Elena Peña Unzué, 24, were married with all pomp and ceremony in the Church of St. Augustine. The couple received innumerable gifts corresponding to a wedding of that rank. But nothing was like the gift of the groom that he gave to his new wife: a superb palace a few meters from the exclusive Avenue Alvear in the neighbourhood of Retiro, which still surprises many with its noble…
One of the most fascinating Palaces in Buenos Aires was designed to store drinking water
An impressive building inside and out, with French ceilings and English (Royal Doulton) and Belgian ceramics on the outside. Shields and crests adorn it everywhere, “Cuadritos” with flowers. Marble everywhere inside, huge iron beams and massive water tanks for more than 72 million litres of drinking water. Everything has been done in a very grand way. One wonders why would a small city spend all this money on water tanks. Well, the location, needed to feed the cities water supply by gravity and…
The Estrugamou in Buenos Aires – The Pinnacle of French Classical Architecture
On the corner of Juncal and Esmeralda streets, in the Retiro neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, sits a stately and imposing relic of an era of French architecture in Buenos Aires, a city often dubbed the “Paris of South America.” The residential Estrugamou Building, or Edificio Estrugamou, resembles an aristocratic French mansion with its chimneys, mansard roof, cornices, and three-story classical columns. The first wave of French architects came to Argentina in the 1820s, shortly after independence from Spain…
Classical French Architecture in Buenos Aires
From 1880, admirers of France as a model republic for cultural and aesthetic tastes, known as the ‘Generation of ‘80’, began to expand globally. The classical French style began to heavily influence even Non-French European Architects. At the beginning of the 19th century, after the wars of independence, European tendencies and influences penetrated into Argentina. As the new republic set about constructing a nation, the Argentine government aimed to move away from its colonial roots. At the time Argentina…
The Basilica in the Retiro of Buenos Aires and the myths that surrounded it
It was eight years of specialised construction, taking care of every detail to the extreme. Travelling to France to buy the best materials and even purchasing the largest organ in Argentina. Luxury, good taste and its Gothic-Romanesque construction with its exterior had a status of “forbidden love” amongst the Buenos Aires aristocracy. This was the birthplace of the Basilica of the Blessed Sacrament in the Retiro neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. “If I live in a palace, then my God also deserves…
The experience of living in a historic building in Buenos Aires
Kavanagh Building The emblematic Kavanagh building, located in Florida 1065 is a symbol of the architecture of Buenos Aires and a reference to the Art Deco movement. The construction was inaugurated in January 1936, at the initiative of Corina Kavanagh and was constructed in a record time of 14 months. At the time, with a height of 120 meters, the project was the highest concrete tower in Latin America. The 105 apartments are distributed over 31 floors and are all different. In addition, the tower has five…
The Stories and Secrets of North Diagonal and Puerto Madero area of the CBD of Buenos Aires in the first half of the 20th Century
On a tour from Avenida de Mayo to Plaza Lavalle one can see some of Buenos Aires most emblematic buildings projected for the most important companies of that era designed by the most prestigious architects that they had in Argentina Buenos Aires streets were initially designed as a grid destined to be almost of infinite size. Until the beginning of the last century, along with Avenida de Mayo, two diagonals crossed. Actually, they were a small apart of a plan commissioned by the architect Joseph Bouvard from…
