Buenos Aires City Hall - dating
back to Spanish colonial times
By Gregor Gosciniak and Theodor Berghausen

13 December 2007: Buenos Aires’ historic city hall, dating back to Spanish colonial times, is known as ‘El Cabildo’ – Spanish for ‘the city council’. In 1608 the then Mayor Manuel de Frías proposed the building of the Cabildo in Plaza de Mayo since the city government lacked such a building. The construction of City Hall was financed with tax money made by the port of Buenos Aires and was finished in 1610 but was soon found to be too small and had to be expanded.

The members of the Cabildo, elected by the citizens of Buenos Aires, assembled every week in this building. In 1682, due to lack of maintenance, the building was almost in ruins, and the construction of a new Cabildo with two stories and eleven arches was planned. Construction of the new building did not start until July 1725, but was suspended in 1728 and then restarted in 1731.

However, soon after construction was again suspended due to lack of funds. The tower of the new Cabildo was finished in 1764, yet even at the time of the May Revolution in 1810, the Cabildo was still not completely finished. Nevertheless in the Cabildo´s parlours the Revolution was conspired.

The Cabildo was then used as a prison, a situation that lasted until a real prison was constructed elsewhere in the city. In 1880, architect Pedro Benoit raised the tower by 10 meters with a dome covered with glazed tiles, instead of the traditional colonial red tiles. The tower was demolished nine years later in 1889 to create space for the Avenida de Mayo avenue and the three northernmost arches of the original eleven arches were demolished.

In 1931, to create room for the Julio A. Roca Avenue, the three southern-most arcs were removed, thereby restoring the central place of the tower, but leaving only five of the original arches. In 1940, architect Mario Buschiazzo reconstructed the colonial features of the Cabildo using various original documents. The tower, the red tiles, the iron bars on the windows and the wooden windows and doors were all repaired.

Currently, the Cabildo hosts the National Museum of the Cabildo and the May Revolution (Museo Nacional del Cabildo y la Revolución de Mayo), in which paintings, artifacts, clothes and jewellery of the 18th century are on display. The patio of the Cabildo still has its 1835 ornamental water well.

When inaugurated, the building dome showed a needle longer than the current one, but it had to be demolished. The French academics style with Italian elements combine mansard roofs, like many of the buildings on Avenida de Mayo avenue. In the elections of June 24th 2007 Mauricio Macri became elect Chief of City Government, He took over from interim mayor Jorge Telerman in December 2007.

Since the early 20th century, Buenos Aires new City Hall is located opposite the Cabildo as one of the buildings that borders the historical Plaza de Mayo square. It was formerly the site of the Municipal Intendance. It was built between 1891 and 1902 by architect Juan Cagnoni. His style was influenced by the French academic art riddled with Italian elements. In its interior two big canvas can be seen: “Preparativos de salida” from Benito Quinquela Martín and “La fundación de Buenos Aires” from José Moreno Carbonero. The plot was donated to the General José de San Martín for his military conquests.