Avenida de Mayo

Map of the avenue

File:Centenario23.jpg

View of the avenue in 1910.

Avenida de Mayo (Template:Lang-es), is an avenue in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina. It connects the Plaza de Mayo with Congressional Plaza, and extends 1.5 km (1 mile) in a west-east direction before merging into Rivadavia Avenue.

History and overview

Built on an initiative by Mayor Torcuato de Alvear, work began in 1885 and was completed in 1894. The Avenida de Mayo was inspired by Madrid's Gran Vía. The avenue is often compared with those of Madrid, Barcelona and Paris due of its sophisticated buildings of art nouveau, neoclassic and eclectic styles. The avenue was named in honor of the May Revolution of 1810 (the event that led to Argentine Independence). The site of the assembly that touched off the revolution (the Buenos Aires Cabildo) was partially demolished in 1888 to make way for the avenue's entry into Plaza de Mayo, ironically. The avenue's layout, built through existing urban blocks instead of via the widening of a parallel street, was designed by the Municipal public Works Director, Juan Antonio Buschiazzo. Buschiazzo was also commissioned to design a number of the buildings along the avenue (among them, City Hall) after Mayor Miguel Cané enacted strict architectural zoning laws for the area facing the new thoroughfare. The recession caused by the Panic of 1890 led to delays and a rollback of many of the more ornate plans for the avenue, which was inaugurated on July 9, 1894 (the 78^th anniversary of Independence).

Mayor Cané's strict regulations initially governed architecture along the 30 m (99 ft)-wide avenue, which limited the height of real estate facing it to 24 m (79 ft). The Barolo Tower was the first to be granted an exception to this and since then, numerous office buildings have been built in excess of these stipulations (though they remain largely an exception). The Avenida de Mayo was the site of the first Buenos Aires Metro stations; opened in 1913, these were the first outside the United States or Europe. The avenue itself underwent its only significant alteration in 1937, when two blocks were demolished to make way for the perpendicular Nueve de Julio Avenue (then the widest in the world). Seeking to halt future demolitions along the avenue, Decree 437/97 of the National Executive Branch declared the Avenue a National Historic Site in 1997 and, as a result, the aesthetics of the buildings, billboards, and marquees could not be changed. Any modifications must be approved by the National Commission of Monuments and Historic Sites (Comisión Nacional de Monumentos y Lugares Históricos). [1]

Image gallery

• 
  Buenos Aires Cabildo, starting point on the Avenue
• 
  Perú underground station.
• 
  North-Eastern corner at Perú street.
• 
  Pasaje Urquiza Anchorena.
• 
  Café Tortoni
• 
  ANMAT building
• 
  View from Nueve de Julio Avenue
• 
  Waterfont at Nueve de Julio Avenue
• 
  Vintage streetlamp at Nueve de Julio Avenue intersection.
• 
  Hotel Castelar
• 
  Belle Époque office space
• 
  Iberia Café
• 
  Hotel Chile
• 
  Avenida Theatre
• 
  36 Billares café bar
• 
  The Palacio Barolo, at one time the tallest building in the city.
• 
  La Inmobiliaria, built circa 1910.
• 
  Rodin's Thinker, at Congressional Plaza.

External links

• Template:Es icon Asociación Amigos de la Avenida de Mayo