The vast majority of what visitors see in Buenos Aires today was
built in the explosive period between 1880 and 1910, just after the city
became the capital of Argentina, and in preparation for the country's
Centennial.
As a result, very little of Buenos Aires's colonial heritage
exists today, save for
Cabildo and
Catedral Metropolitana surrounding
Plaza de Mayo, both of which have been altered dramatically over time, and several churches within Monserrat and San Telmo.
Redesigning Streets
Instead of Spain, it was France to which Argentina
looked when re-envisioning Buenos Aires. The idea was to adopt the
principles that Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann used in Paris to create a
new Argentine capital. The Parisian concepts of diagonals, grand
structures, parks, and vista points found their place all over the city.
Developers laid new boulevards over the original Spanish colonial grid. The most important was
Avenida de Mayo,
which opened in 1893 to serve as the government procession route,
linking the Casa Rosada or Presidential Palace on its eastern end with
the new
Congreso on its western terminus. Lined with Beaux Arts
and Art Nouveau buildings, according to the styles of the time, it
became the cultural and nightlife center of the city.
Diagonal Norte and
Diagonal Sur
were also built. Diagonal Norte was completed in the 1930s and, as
such, its buildings represent a mix of neoclassical and Art Deco
elements. Each building is capped with a corner dome, creating a
sweeping skyline meant to connect the
Plaza de Mayo and the
Casa Rosada to the
Tribunales Building
in Plaza Libertad.
The sprawling design of Diagonal Norte and Avenida
de Mayo was meant to provide philosophical and physical connections
between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government.
This point was lost to a degree with the erection of the
Obelisco,
which blocked the view of the Tribunales, in 1936, marking the 400th
anniversary of the first founding of the city.
The Obelisco sits in the
oval
Plaza de República, which was once the site of
Iglesia de San Nicolás
where the Argentine flag was first displayed on August 23, 1812. Like
the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Obelisco was hated by many when it was
first built but has become the most important symbol of the city.
The
grand architectural plans for Diagonal Sur never came to fruition.
Though it began grandly, with the
City Legislature Building, over time it became lined with buildings lacking distinction, and it has no vista point.
The widest boulevard in the world,
Avenida 9 de Julio, was
planned in 1888, but its construction didn't begin until the 1930s. It
was built in stages, beginning with the center portion that exists
today, and then widened by a street block on each side. What appears to
be the grand entrance of
Teatro Colón
today was once the back of the structure facing what was at the time only an obscure street.
Technically,
Avenida 9 de Julio is incomplete. The grand expansion of
the street that created the underground portions of Teatro Colón was to
extend all the way to Avenida del Libertador. Ironically, the plan to
redesign Buenos Aires to look like Paris would have meant the
destruction of the Belle Epoque French Embassy.
France refused to sell
the structure, and today this building remains a beautiful vista point
at the boulevard's northern terminus and is a reminder of the
neighboring neoclassical buildings that were destroyed here. At the
southern end of the boulevard, the Health
Department building was too
large a structure to demolish, so the boulevard simply circumvents it.
It was from this building, looking out over Avenida 9 de Julio, that
Evita gave the speech in which she renounced her candidacy for the vice
presidency.
From one end to the other, with the Obelisco as its fulcrum,
the grand boulevard seems out of kilter, the low-rise buildings that
line it out of balance with its expanse, remaining to this day a
testament to ambitious plans that could never be entirely fulfilled.
Grand Architecture
As the streets were rebuilt, grand plans were announced to build what
were to become the city's most iconic structures. The first of these
was the
Water Palace, originally designed in 1877 to provide the
city with a clean water supply, in response to the yellow fever epidemic
raging through San Telmo.
But as wealthy residents erected mansions
adjacent to the site and the city poised itself to become the capital of
the country, what had been meant merely as a structure for water pumps
was transformed into an exquisite, high-Victorian-style edifice, built
with more than 300,000 glazed Royal Doulton bricks shipped from Britain
and interior workings from Belgium. Completed in 1887, it is the
earliest example of how, for the next several decades, Buenos Aires
would continue to outdo itself architecturally.
Perhaps the grandest of all was the
Congreso building. Opened
in 1906 after nearly 9 years of work, and built in a Greco-Roman style
with strong Parisian Beaux Arts influences, Congreso is the city's most
imposing building.
One of the main architects was Victor Meano, who was
also involved in designing the Teatro Colón but was murdered before
completion of either building. Certain elements within the structure
call to mind the Argentine desire to emulate other countries.
The
overall scheme of the building, with its wings and central dome, mimics
the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The bronze ornamentation at the
roofline simulates that of the Paris Opera House, and the grand
entrance, capped by bronze horses, is almost a direct copy of the
Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
Though the exterior walls are made of
Argentine granite, the building's interior is lavishly decorated with
woods, tiles, marbles, bronzes, and other material imported from Europe.
The
Teatro Colón opened in 1908 and was perhaps the grandest
example of Buenos Aires's desire to compete with the capitals of Europe.
It, too, is filled with exquisite imported materials. After its
opening, Italy's greatest opera stars, such as Enrico Caruso, graced its
stage.
Yet for all its desire to transform itself architecturally to rival
Europe, Buenos Aires was more the Dubai or Beijing of its time.
The city
had the wealth to pay for the massive rebuilding, but it lacked the
know-how and had to import talent, labor, and materials from Europe.
Buenos Aires needed the countries it competed with in order to transform
itself in their image, something that to this day remains a sticking
point.
There are 25 monkey in the park.
The Monkey Land Park is 2 and half years old. and for one year is available for the public to interact with the squirrel monkeys.
We entered in the enclosure and the monkey come to us. We were asked not to grab them because they are so curious and like the cameras and the food that we were feeding them.
The monkey are very soft curious and cute an playful. For them the pregnancy takes 5 and half months. They take care of the baby for 4 months and then they send them to be independent.
In the group the teenagers also care for the little ones so the mother take a break, 
