Avenida de Mayo

The Avenida de Mayo [ aβeniða de maʒo ] (Spanish for " Maiallee " ) is a large avenue in the Montserrat neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Opened Planned as majestic boulevard Parisian model and after violent quarrels on July 9, 1894 Avenida de Mayo is now regarded as a symbol of the Argentine- Spanish relations and reflects the social problems of Buenos Aires resist.

The mainly ahornblättrigen trees ( platanus acerifolia ) lined avenue connects the historic Plaza de Mayo to the Plaza del Congreso and crosses it halfway up the 16- lane main thoroughfare Avenida 9 de Julio. It starts at the corner of Calle Bolívar (after Simón Bolívar ), and runs between the southern parallel Hipólito Yrigoyen street Calle ( Hipólito Yrigoyen after ) and the northern Avenida Rivadavia ( by Bernardino Rivadavia ). The 1350 -meter-long five-lane one-way street has a pavement width of 17 meters and 3.25 meters respectively sidewalk on both sides. The homes along the boulevard are numbered 500-1400, the highest buildings are roadside HSBC with 29, the Galicia Norte with 25 and the Palacio Barolo with 22 floors. Under the Avenida de Mayo, the line A subway of Buenos Aires, the oldest subway line in the southern hemisphere runs.

Although planned by the French model, the constant current Iberian immigrants Avenida de Mayo turned with time into an unmistakably Spanish Boulevard on the type of Gran Vía in Madrid. A harmonious blend of Art Nouveau, Classicism and eclecticism in architecture of the adjacent building was destroyed in the meantime by reckless building measures. An Argentine- Spanish redevelopment project and the existing monument since 1997 have the former splendor, however, largely restored.

Since the Avenida de Mayo connects the Casa Rosada presidential palace with the office building of the Argentine National Congress, it is the first official route newly elected President and preferred location for national celebrations. Where heroes were celebrated as the crew of the seaplane Plus Ultra after the first Atlantic crossing and the Spanish aviator Jorge Newbery, but was also carried celebrities with funeral marches to the grave. The Avenida de Mayo is also the classic route for protest marches.

History

Between 1850 and 1880 there were in the public space of Buenos Aires for two parallel forms of expression, namely the gradual dissolution located in colonial and they detaching bourgeois, whose role model in Paris from the under Napoleon III. acting Georges- Eugène Haussmann had been created. Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, who in Torcuato de Alvear, mayor of Buenos Aires from 1883 to 1887, the " Argentine Haussmann " saw had with his book " barbarism and civilization" (1845 ) created the long lasting foundation for France as a model for the orientation of the Argentine nation-state to look at.

1880 Buenos Aires became the capital of Argentina. Port works, the then fledgling railroad and a steady stream of immigrants increased the economic traffic and population density of the city. Politicians and intellectuals like Alvear - the " 80s generation " ( generación del 80) - pressed ahead with technical progress and sought to build Buenos Aires with the help of foreign investment into a modern cosmopolitan city.

Planning and disputes

Alvear pursued this goal by he wanted to make the streets of the city center more attractive. In 1882 he turned to the desire of the then Interior Minister Bernardo de Irigoyen in Argentina to build a boulevard. Should Irigoyen confirm the charitable status of this project in order ( the legal basis for state funding and the necessary expropriation of landowners, between the Plaza de la Victoria (now Plaza de Mayo ) and Plaza Lorea and the streets Rivadavia Avenue and Calle Victoria today Calle Hipólito Yrigoyen ) to create. On October 31, 1884 Alvear submitted the Law No. 1583 for testing, which should authorize the construction of a 30 meter wide avenue named 25 de Mayo between the defined border points.

From that moment on, the project was discussed sharp. Opponents criticized the project, there were more pressing things than the construction of a luxury street: water pipes and drains should be developed, the roads repaired and the source of many fever infections are drained with the peri-urban marshes.

The municipal administration held out the beautification aspect next to the road was essential to relieve the traffic flow between the city harbor and the train station at the Plaza Once de Septiembre and improve hygiene conditions by acting as a " lung" of the air supply improved to the city center and so the stricken by epidemics city procure relief. 1884 Alvear was briefly removed from his position because he presented the view of the opposition, " the superfluous than necessary " and state money wasted.

An important issue of the design phase was whether the boulevard was to be constructed by widening the northern Avenida Rivadavia or by drawing an entirely new route between the parallel streets Rivadavia and Victoria. The architect and director of public works Juan Antonio Buschiazzo sat by the latter because so avoid the contradiction between new buildings on the south side and run-down old buildings on the north side was and because Rivadavia and Victoria were not perfectly parallel and additional harmonizing construction work would have been incurred. The newspaper La Nacion also spoke in favor of the second draft, but from the pragmatic reason that in this way the foundations of dilapidated structures would have to be adjusted by force.

The National Congress of Argentina, however, pushed the decision on Alvear's "Street Opening Act " addition: The Senate was not on the eligibility question agree, because the Chamber of Deputies the term " charitable " discussed. The problem was that the state of the community could only give financial resources when the need of the construction work for the welfare of the population was proved.

Later the construction was delayed because of the expropriation. The expropriations drove the project cost in the amount, because the affected strip was densely populated and a lot of residents had to be compensated. The population feared that the city could not afford the project, because under applicable local law, the expropriation included not only the land itself, but also all other possessions that were sold to the highest bidder. Alvear responded to these concerns by arguing that soaring through the construction of the boulevard land values ​​and lured luxury shops would outweigh the loss.

The dispossessed himself argued that the expropriation was unconstitutional, since larger areas were claimed as were ultimately necessary. This triggered a new fundamental debate on the legality of forced sales, particularly those areas that are not needed: in fact, according to plan. The Mayor replied that the city offers more than the property is worth what is for the benefit of those concerned. The case of Isabel de Elortondo Armstrong, whose estate was divided in two in the street Calle Perú caused a stir. The Supreme Court ruled in 1888 that the city should just buy that part of the reason, is necessary for the construction of the avenue. Following this ruling, the residents were able to ask for large sums of money and at the same time benefit from the subsequent multiplication of the value of their possessions.

1888 joined the hygiene doctor Antonio F. Crespo to the office of mayor. He called for a rejection of the road opening act of his predecessor, arguing that a single avenue was not enough to improve ventilation and hygiene situation downtown. In the proposed construction of the Avenida de Mayo, it could be an embellishment which has no practical use so only.

At the time the decision was Crespo's criticism but already fallen: the public spoke in favor of an implementation of the project. If the avenue original 25 de Mayo hot, it was agreed now on Avenida de Mayo, as an allusion to the May Revolution on May 25, 1810, which led to the founding of the first Argentine government.

Demolition work

On May 25, 1888, demolition work began on the Avenida de Mayo. First you ripped the oldest public building from the Plaza de Mayo: The Police Headquarters (Casa de Policía ), the three northern arches of the city council building Cabildo and the fire district ( Cuartel de Bomberos ).

Crespo was due to illness resigned from his office and the new mayor Francisco Seeber traveling around Europe, so that at the beginning of the demolition work temporarily Guillermo Cranwell held the post of the mayor. As Seeber later returned a short time, much impressed by the Parisian style as already some of his predecessors and a head full of ideas, the construction of the first large commercial building on the Plaza de Mayo had already begun. Seeber then went back to Europe without carrying out his plans, and gave his position internally to Francisco Bollini. They waited for the return of Torcuato de Alvear, who in Europe should recover from an illness and he initiated project was only too happy to perform. However Alvear died on December 8, 1890 on the return trip to Argentina without having to get the construction of the Avenida ever seen.

Bollini saw himself confronted with the economic crisis in 1890 and was limited to the administration. During his tenure, the decision was made to build the Palacio de Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires at the corner of Bolivar / Avenida de Mayo. However, its construction proved by the limited resources as difficult and costly as the dispossessed continued to demand high payments. The originally adopted budget of 4 million pesos had to be eventually increased to 10.5 million in 1892 and to 12.5 million pesos. On Bollini Miguel Cané followed as mayor. Although he was a driving force behind the project so far, he had to hold back with the limited by the delicate economic situation financial means to get along.

Opening and Closing

Finally, the Avenida de Mayo was opened under Canes successor Federico Pinedo on July 9, 1894, a pompous ceremony and the cheers of the people. The day before there had been a torch procession on the day after you lit the Plaza Lorea, a twenty minute fireworks display. At the western head of the road was built a large archway with the inscription 9 de Julio de 1816 -. 9 de Julio de 1894 The headlight of the Battleship Admiral Brown lit up the Plaza de Mayo, whose fountains turned into Chinese pagodas.

The actual completion of construction took place only in September of the same year. Although 85 of the 115 affected land could be bought cheaply by exemption from the tax, the total construction costs amounted to 14 million pesos.