Posts Tagged ‘buenosaires’

I was lucky enough to see 2012 in at the top of the Palacio Barolo, the tallest building in South America when it was built 90 years ago. It’s a beautiful and fascinating place in its own right and I’ll do a post on it soon, but in the meantime enjoy the pics of Buenos Aires celebrating the New Year.

Something a little more sober than usual today. Today and tomorrow mark the tenth anniversary of the marches and riots that took place all over Argentina in 2001 protesting against the effects of the economic crisis that had overtaken the country throughout the year. Photos from the events leading up to the riots and the events of the those 2 days are being displayed in Plaza de Congreso & Plaza de Mayo for the next week.

Explaining the causes of the crisis would take a much more economically-minded person than me, but it stemmed from the policy of the Menem government to peg the peso artificially to the dollar throughout the 90s. Known as the Uno a Uno, it was successful in its initial aim of controlling the hyperinflation of the late 1980s (when it hit 5,000%), but as the decade came to a close, Argentine exports became uncompetitive and the country entered a 3-year recession.

Throughout 2001 the crisis got worse with mass resignations from the cabinet and President de la Rúa losing all parliamentary support in the October elections. Added to this was the effect of the Corralito which limited bank withdrawals to stem the flood of money from the system, which was largely ineffective due to large institutional exceptions (and warnings being given to large companies) but hit the middle classes hard.

By this point Argentina was effectively in default on a $132bn international debt and on December 1st all bank accounts were frozen which paralysed the country and the protests began in earnest. A series of lootings in Buenos Aires province between the 16th and 19th December led the President to claim Peronist agitators were fuelling the violence and at 9pm on the 19th December 2001 he declared a state of emergency.

People began leaving their houses and a cacerolazo (banging saucepans with a wooden spoon) started as the people of Buenos Aires showed their unhappiness with the situation and converged on the Plaza de Mayo. On the 20th the protests continued as the police began cracking down violently on the protests and by the end of the day 26 people had been killed around the country, including 5 in the Plaza de Mayo. The situation was not helped by the resignation of the President the following day and his escape from the Casa Rosada by helicopter.

A couple of years ago I had three months in Buenos Aires and I made a list of things that I needed to do in the time I had available to me. Some may still pending (Feria de Mataderos I’m looking at you), but today I managed to cross another off the list as we headed to the Argentinian Polo Open in Palermo.

I’ve never been to a polo match before. Where I come from Polo is played by future Kings and there isn’t much room for non-Royal types like myself. In Argentina however, whilst polo is without doubt a rich man’s sport (the Mercedes booths scattered all over give you a clue), anyone with 40 pesos is welcome to watch the proceedings at the polo grounds in Palermo.


Helped by years of pub quizzes I know the periods of play are called chukkas and that it is played on the largest pitch of any sport, but beyond that nobody in our group really knew what was going on. Picking it up as we went, the chukkas last 7 minutes and there’s 8 of them in a match. Given the size of the pitch it was pretty hard to really follow what was going on unless it happened in front of you, but what we could make out was very fast-moving and exciting.

The game finished with Estancia Grande scoring 5 times in the final chukka to come back from 14-16 down to win 19-17, but as most of the goals were scored at the other end, most of the excitement was lost on us.

Not many cities can rival Buenos Aires for public art in the streets. From huge graffiti murals to some of the most recognisable sculptures in the world, Buenos Aires really does have it all. One of the jewels in the public art crown, missed by many tourists, yet a stone’s throw from Recoleta Cemetery is the Floralis Generica.

Designed by Argentina architect Eduardo Catalano (famous for the Catalano House and the US Embassy in Buenos Aires – possibly the ugliest building in the city), the Floralis Generica was created in 2002 from stainless steel by aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

Catalano conceived it as a kinetic sculpture and the flower opens in the morning and closes at night when the central stamen emit an eerie blue glow. At least it’s supposed to. The mechanism has been broken for the last few months and the flower is forever open – and Lockheed Martin no longer operate in Argentina so there is apparently no way of fixing it.

Every so often you come across one of those little quirky things that serve very little practical purpose but are different enough to put a smile on your face and brighten the day up for an hour or two. One of those events too place last Saturday on the Avenida de Mayo in the centre of Buenos Aires, the 8th Annual Waiter’s Race.

The concept is very simple, waiters from all over Argentina race down the Avenida de Mayo, loop round the Plaza de Mayo and back up the Avenida, covering 1,600 metres carrying a tray with 2 bottles and a full glass.

That’s it, as simple as that. Obviously, you need to finish carrying what you started with, so dropping your drinks slows you down which means that the better waiter you are, the better your chances of winning – it’s not all about speed!

It’s one of the most recognisable sculptures in the world, and only 22 casts were made from the original mould. Of those, only one is in South America, sitting in Plaza de Congreso in front of the National Congress Building.

However, in a sad reflection of what happens here if it ain’t fenced off, Rodin’s Thinker recently got a new, temporary, colour.

I saw it on a tour a few weeks ago, snapped the above pic, and within 2 days it was scrubbed clean – impressively fast for this city where graffiti scrawled on the main Cathedral is often left for weeks on end. However, according to this article, in their haste to blast the pink off with water, the city Government may have caused irreversible damage to the sculpture and its original patination. Nice try…

Towards the end of the 19th Century, after a series of increasingly serious disease outbreaks (in 1871 Yellow Fever wiped out nearly 10% of the city’s inhabitants), it was decided to do something about the quality of the drinking water. Work began in 1887 on a central pumping station which when finished in 1894 turned out to be one of the most flamboyant architectural works in a city not known for its understated buildings. Officially named El Gran Depósito Ingeniero Guillermo Villanueva it soon became known by a much more fitting and stately name, El Palacio de Aguas Corrientes (The Palace of Running Water).

Palace may not be overstating things. It may well have contained 12 enormous tanks with a total capacity of 72 million litres of water, but it’s the exterior that truly grabs the attention. Decorated with 400,000 ceramic and glazed terracotta tiles made by Royal Doulton in England and sporting the coats of arms of the 14 (at the time) Argentinian provinces, it’s hard not to be impressed by the sheer effort put into a public utility building.


Whilst its water-pumping days may be over, it still houses the Buenos Aires Water Company’s offices as well as a small water works museum. It can be found on Avenida Córdoba, a couple of blocks from the Callao subte station on Line D.

Nice little film tracing the day of one of Buenos Aires’ famous Dog Walkers. Victor has been doing the job for the last 12 years and has been bitten three times and has lost 2 dogs (both turned up later!).

I’ll tell anyone that listens that the best map of Buenos Aires is the Interactive Map on the Buenos Aires City Government site. With it you can easily find any street address and for planning a journey on public transport it’s indispensable.

However, today I discovered a feature I’d not spotted before which makes me very happy indeed (it doesn’t take much). As well as the expected map and satellite views, it offers a choice of photographic overlays from times gone by. A satellite view from 2004 and aerial views from 1978, 1965 and 1940. I’ve spent most of the afternoon exploring 1940s Buenos Aires and am going to sharing some of the highlights here (click on all photos for larger views).

Completed around about the turn of the 20th Century, the Plaza de Mayo has not changed beyond recognition in the 71 years since this photo was taken. The main change is that the Casa Rosada was surrounded by roads on all four sides back then. Balcarce to its left as we look at it is now pedestrianised and the Paseo Colón passed right past the front of the building instead of looping round the gardens as it does now. Also, with fewer trees than nowadays, it’s easier to see the symmetry of the Plaza itself in the aerial view, something its hard to appreciate from ground level.

If the Plaza de Mayo hasn’t changed much, then the above shot shows an area that has undergone some major work. We all know the Avenida 9 de Julio these days as it cuts its way through the heart of the city. Well it hasn’t always been this way – back in 1940 it was only 5 blocks long and was more of a Plaza than an Avenida! The Obelisco had been built 4 or 5 years prior and it wouldn’t be for another 10 years until the buildings between Cerrito & Carlos Pelligrini would be levelled to extend the avenue. The Teatro Colón can be seen in the bottom left of the picture.

El Caminito, now one of the main tourist attractions in Buenos Aires was a long way from that in 1940. As the above picture shows it was then simply a spur of the main railway that served the docks. It wouldn’t be for another 15 years before local artist Benito Quinquela Martín would begin working on his vision of transforming it into Buenos Aires’ first open-air musuem.

The above picture shows one of the main sights of my tour, the market building in Abasto. At the time of this picture it had only been open for 5 years and would remain so for another 44 years. Clearly visible is the rear sections which is somewhat altered these days, but the front section remains intact as it was then. Also note the tramlines running up and down Corrientes. Buenos Aires once had one of the largest tram systems in the world (more than 850km of track at its peak) which was dismantled in the 1960s in favour of buses.

There is, of course, much more to be discovered with these wonderful old aerial shots and as I find more things of interest I’ll post them here.

In a city filled with architectural curiosities, one that captures the attention more than most is the Confiteria del Molino, on the corners of Rivadavia and Callao, opposite the Congeso Nacional. Abandoned since 1997, it now sits in one of the best locations of Buenos Aires, looking unloved and getting dirtier every day. Things were not always this way of course, and the building has a much brighter past than its current sorry state implies.

Gaetano Brenna had been operating as a cake maker in Buenos Aires since 1850 and the Brenna name became synonymous with some of the finest Pan Dulce to be found. Towards the end of the 19th Century Brenna changed the name of his café from Confiteria del Centro to Antigua Confitería del Molino (Old Windmill Café) in honour of the nearby Molino Lorea, the first flour mill built in Buenos Aires. In 1905 they moved to the current site and in 1917 the Nueva Confitería del Molino opened in the building we still see today.

In order to build this Art Nouveau masterpiece, architect Francisco Gianotti imported all of the doors, marble, ceramics, glass and 150 m² of stained glass from Italy. Above the decorative windmill, the attic roof and the decorative cupola still have their gold tiles, although due to the dirt accumulated over the years, these are best seen when it’s raining!

Being such a prominent and striking building, many famous Argentines (and others) have passed through its doors. From Eva Perón to Carlos Gardel (who requested a special dessert be created in honour of his friend, jockey Irineo Leguisamo) to Madonna, who even filmed the video for her song Love Don’t Live Here Anymore (see below) in the building, less than a year before it closed.

Unfortunately, the exterior beauty and beautiful clientele did not mean that the business was being run with any level of competence and after several decades of bankruptcies and buyouts the Confiteria finally closed its doors on the 24th January 1997, and was named a National Historic Monument the same year. Plans have come and go to reopen the building, and there is currently a proposal of expropriation working its way through the House of Representatives. Until that happens however, the Confiteria del Molina will remain closed, it’s grubby exterior giving us only a small glimpse of her glamourous past.