Monuments of Buenos Aires: Las Nereidas Fountain by Lola Mora
This magnificent fountain, located at the intersection of Tristan Achaval Rodriguez and Padre Mingone Avenues in Costanera Sur, Puerto Madero, is the work of Dolores Mora de Hernandez, better known as Lola Mora, an artist from Tucuman. Lola Mora was the first Argentinian and Latin American female sculptor. In 1889, she was awarded the first prize at the Universal Exhibition in Paris.
In 1900 Lola Mora offered to donate a piece of sculpture for the Argentine Government. The fountain was made in Lola Mora's workshop in Rome, first in its original size in plaster and then in Carrara Marble. Las Nereidas Fountain was originally placed at the new Plaza Colon, behind the Pink House in 1902. But the society of the time was terribly shocked by the nudity of the figures of Tritons, Nereids and the Venus goddess rising out of a sea shell, so in 1918 it was decided to move the entire fountain to its current location in Costanera Sur. Over time, the piece went from immoral to classic, and it was declared as a National Historic Monument. It is now protected from vandalism by a glass shield.
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