The monument dedicated to General José de San Martín, located in Plaza San Martín in Retiro neighborhood, was inaugurated in 1862, being the first equestrian monument in Buenos Aires at the time. It was the work of French sculptor Louis Joseph Daumas, who designed it in the Napoleonic style (the figure of San Martín pointing at the road to freedom with his right arm), and it became a model for other similar monuments in squares all over the country.





This is the city´s most important monument, and, according to the protocol, all foreign dignataries visiting Buenos Aires must pay a visit and deposit a wreath at its feet.

General José de San Martín is the father of the Argentine Nation, who set Argentina, Chile and Peru free from the Spanish rule. The spot that nowadays the monument occupies was where the headquarters of his regiment Granaderos a Caballo (cavalry men) were found. In 1910, for the celebration of the centennial of the Argentine independence, the monument was moved from its original position, and a marble basement with allegoric groups by German sculptor Gustav Eberlein was added to the original bronze statue.

A similar monument was commissioned to the same sculptor for Santiago de Chile, that´s why both monuments are very similar. And there´s a smaller size replica of this monument in the Central Park, in New York.

Among the events for the celebration of its 100 years of existence, Teatro Colón has inaugurated a historical and artistic exhibition, destined to showcasing the countless technical elements from props, scenography, scale models, costumes, wigs and shoes, used for the performances over the years.

The opening hours of the exhibition are Monday to Friday, 10 am to 4 pm. Entrance on Teatro Colon's Carriage Passage (Pasaje de los Carruajes), Tucumán 1171.
Entrance: AR $ 10

Another exhibition, "El Colón Fuera del Colón" (The Colon outside the Colon), featured 70 photographs of the centenary building, by Arnaldo Colombaroli, as well as historical costume elements.
This exhibition, with fee entrance, took place at the "Leopoldo Lugones" and "Juan L. Ortiz" rooms of the National Library, Agüero 2502, until Sunday, June 29th.

www.teatrocolon.org.ar

The National Museum of Fine Arts has reopened to the public, after 70 years, the rooms for the Guerrico Collection, which include ivory pieces, vases, silver pieces, and a group of European sculptures and paintings from the 19th century, which from now on are an integral part of the permanent collection of the museum

Considered as the first Argentine collector, Manuel José de Guerrico (1800-1876) started to build his art collection at his home in Paris, which he brought to Argentina in 1848. It was later enriched by his son José Prudencio (1837-102), who donated 22 pieces with the purpose of contributing to the creation of the National Museum of Fine Arts in 1859. In 1938 the whole of the collection, that is now on exhibition, was donated to the museum by the descendants of both collectors. It was composed of 627 pieces: paintings, sculptures, miniatures, porcelains, boxes, fans, lacquers, ivories, crystals, wood carvings, silver pieces. On that year the collection was in exhibition for a while and then put away in the deposit. Today the pieces of this collection are exhibited again in a room especially built to recreate the way in which art collections were displayed at the end of the 19th century, with dim lights and dark walls.





Some of the outstanding pieces of the collection are: works from the Barbizon School; "The sacrifice of Melquisedec"; scenes from the Flemish genre; religious Italian and Spanish paintings; "Monk praying", by Francisco Zurbarán; "Diana Surprised" (picture), by Joseph Lefebvre; "The murder of Dr Manuel Vicente Mazza", by Prilidiano Pueyrredón, "Portrait of André Gil" and "Rocks", by Gustave Courbet; "Ville d`Avray", by Camille Corot, among others. There are also some works from previous centuries, like "Hebrews picking up Manna in the desert", by Giovanni Tiépolo (1692-1769).

Among the sculptures, a dozen of anonymous bronzes from the 17th and 18th centuries; some pieces by artists like Gustave Doré and Antonio Tantardini; and the work "La defense" by Auguste Rodin, along with Japanese carvings, or silver Argentine "mates" from the colonial times.

Galería Güemes is one of the most beautiful hidden gems of Buenos Aires. Thousands of people walk by it every day, since it is located in the busiest pedestrian street in Buenos Aires, but most of them are unaware of the beauty this building offers inside, since the entrance on Calle Florida 165 is completely unappealing. Its back entrance on San Martín 170, however, still retains its original glory.

Galería Güemes is considered to be the first skyscraper built in Buenos Aires, with its 14 floors and 87 meters high. It was inaugurated in 1915, featuring technical advances for the time, almost futuristic, and comprising a variety of functions in its interior: a theater, a cabaret, and a restaurant underground; apartments over Calle Florida; offices over San Martin; another restaurant with an observation deck on the 14th floor; and a 116 meter long commercial gallery on the ground floor, which connects both streets, inspired in the great covered passages and commercial galleries of the time, especially the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele in Milan. Its apartments were home to some outstanding personalities, like French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of "The Little Prince", and Argentine writer Julio Cortazar.

The architecture is a mix of Art Nouveau, Gothic, and Neoclassical, and was the creation of Italian architect Francisco Gianotti. Galeria Güemes is considered as one of the most representative examples of Art Nouveau architecture in Buenos Aires, with its beautiful marble columns and stairs, bronzes, glass domes, and ornate elevator banks.

The building suffered the neglect and lack of maintenance for decades, but a recent restoration brought the building back to its magnificent splendor, including the recovery of the original glass domes, the repairing of Italian marbles brought for its construction in 1914; the conditioning of the numerous hand made bronze pieces, with a special polishing to regain their original shine. These restoration works have won a Special Mention for the restoration of the Glass Domes at the 2006 Ibero-American Prize for the Best Intervention in the Built Patrimony.

The Art Nouveau underground theater was closed for nearly 40 years, but was also recently restored and today houses the Piazzolla Tango show, one of the most beautiful Tango palaces in Buenos Aires.

There are guided visits to the observation deck on the 14th floor every Thursday at 4 pm.
Galería Güemes official website