Big Palaces of Latin America

Big Palaces of Lima, Peru





One architectural style usually unites the big public and private palaces of Lima: the colonial revival of Lima. That is the case of the Palace of the Government of Peru, who’s also mixed with a strong influence of the baroque. He is part of a set of several gorgeous buildings in front of the Plaza Mayor, specially the Archbishop’s Palace and the Municipal Palace, who also adds two main characteristics of the style: the wooden balconies and the yellow painting of the facade. A few blocks away, in front of the Paseo de los Héroes Navales, lies the Palace of Justice, who brakes this logic and utilizes the neoclassic style (often used by the Justice System in the whole world). Also in front of the same park is the Rímac Building (or Roosevelt House), with an outstanding french academicism, a style that is very rare to see in the country. And finally, at Miraflores, the famous Municipality, who serves as a cultural focus of the district and who also gets back to the colonial revival that distinguish the city.





Palace of Justice:








Rimac Building/Roosevelt House:








National Club:









House of the Government:

Edificio Encarnación:








Palacio Municipal de Lima:











Casa O'Higgins:

Casa de la Literatura Peruana:






















Municipalidad de Miraflores:

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In HD:

Big Palaces of Santiago, Chile












City: Santiago de Chile
Place: Big Public Palaces







The current splendor of the biggest capitals of Latin America started in the times of the waves of the european and asian immigration. Though most of them was born during the conquest of the Spanish Empire, their exponential growth took place in the last 150 years. In the specific case of Santiago de Chile, there’s some exquisite examples: the most important is the Palacio de la Moneda, originally made for as the house of the production of coins, who then was turned into the Presidential Palace. Another gorgeous example is the Palace of Justice, made with characteristics of neoclassical architecture, a style often used for the Justice in the whole world. A few blocks away, just in front of the Plaza de Armas, is also the Museum of National History, former Palace of the Real Audiencia, where some essential events of the Independence of Chile took place. Lastly, two smaller examples: the Post Office with its Beaux Arts style (somehow similar to the gigantic building of the Post Office of Buenos Aires), and the outstanding Cuartel General de Bomberos with its unique neo-baroque style, who almost looks on its details like an hungarian palace.

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In HD:

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Palaces & Museums







Along with Buenos Aires at the podium, Rio de Janeiro was one of the richest cities of Latin America at the beginning of the 20th Century and some of its extravagant architecture still remains triumphant. Though the process of demolition and renewal of the buildings in the city was devastating, nowadays many of the most relevant tourist points are the restored public palaces such as the National Library, the Centro Cultural Justiá Federal, the Municipal Chamber or the Museum of Fine Arts. All of them are included in the spectrum of the Beaux Arts buildings of Rio, who reached the city on its golden age of prosperity. Among the collection of palaces, their most important icon if the Theatro Municipal (Municipal Theatre), who was strongly influenced by the Palais Garnier, the inspirational muse of many gorgeous theatres all around the world of that era.






TEATRO MUNICIPAL

NATIONAL LIBRARY

CENTRO CULTURAL JUSTIÇA FEDERAL

CÂMARA MUNICIPAL DO RIO DE JANEIRO









MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

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In HD:

Mar del Plata, Argentina: Mansions & Palaces











Though nowadays it’s a city with its own personality who receives tourism from all the provinces of Argentina, Mar del Plata was, when it was first built, almost an extension of Buenos Aires, specially from the wealthiest families. This city was probably in its golden age (the first 40 years of the 20th Century) one of the most beautiful cities in the world outside of Europe. Mar del Plata changed drastically with the construction boom who started in the 1950s, but the amount of mansions and palaces of the old city (consisting in kilometers of gorgeous residences) can be still seen in several examples who used the Picturesque and Medieval revival as their architectural styles, along with others like Beaux Arts and even Art Nouveau. The most prominent examples are: the Golf Club in front of the Yacht Club, the City Hall who was inspired by the Palazzo Vecchio of Florence, the fantastic Torreón del Monje (a castle-like where you can eat fish with great views of the sea), the gigantic Villa Devoto and the Villa Ortíz Basualdo (Castagnino Museum), probably the most famous palace of the city.





Villa Devoto



















Villa Ortiz Basualdo (Castagnino Museum)










Municipality

Santa Paula







Villa Normandy













Villa Gainza Paz







[BFormer Railway Station[/B]










Torreón del Monje

Golf Club







Museo Histórico Municipal (Museum)







Chateau Frontenac







Poder Judicial







Other mansions:



















Saint Michel

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Video:

Buenos Aires: Palaces & Mansions of Caballito Neighborhood




With a very strong identity among the boundaries of Buenos Aires, Caballito remains as some sort of border between the West and the Downtown of the city. More than 100 years ago, the neighborhood was known for its extensive mansions and french/english palaces. Few decades later, at the middle of the 20th Century, it became the most populated area of the country, with a vast massive amount of buildings. Among the residential examples, the Femenil Palace is probably the most massive one:










The schools of the neighborhood were, at the same time, the ones who occupied more terrain and their buildings mostly utilized the same english neogothic and northern italian styles. Within those is the Primera Junta School, a unique Beaux Arts palace who is today the only big palace of the old times who still remains in one piece:

Just in front of the borders of the neighborhood, within the Centenary Park, there's a concentration of palaces for public use, built on the beginning of the 20th Century aswell. The most relevant case is the Museum of Natural Science, divided into two parts: the italian and the Art Deco extension, both of them with motifs of animals on the walls.
















In front of the Museum is the Divino Rostro School, on a very strange boomerang-like terrain:










Also, the palaces of the neighborhood can be seen on the industrial architecture. In this case, the Gran Depósito Caballito, a huge water tank who shows the ambition of the architecture and the society on that era:










These are a few more examples of this kind of architecture in Caballito: the Ferro Club, the Art Nouveau's Rawson School, the Pasteur Institute at the Centenary Park, and the Opus Dei mansion in front of the Rivadavia Park:

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On video: