Casa Rosada

Map of the Fort of 1708, with the first trace of the little Buenos Aires on the top

The old Fort

In 1536, Don Pedro de Mendoza established a settlement near the mouth of the Riachuelo de los Navíos, called Nuestra Señora del Buen Ayre. In 1580, Juan de Garay founded the city at the place which was to be the Plaza Mayor (nowadays Plaza de Mayo), naming it Santísima Trinidad while the port retained the name of the original settlement; the "Royal Fort of Don Juan Baltasar de Austria" was built in 1594. It was replaced in 1713 by a more solid construction with turrets, sentry boxes, a moat and a drawbridge that upon being completed in 1720 was given the name of "Castillo San Miguel" (St. Michael's Castle). President Bernardino Rivadavia modified the fort in 1820, and the drawbridge was replaced by a neoclassical portico. The site which was for defence purposes at that time and also seat of the Spanish and Home governments, is where Government House currently stands.[2]

In the Pink House Museum one of its cannon holes can be found in part of a storage room of the Royal Treasury's warehouse.[2]

Taylor's Customs House

View of the Taylor's Customs House, the Casa Rosada and Estación Central from Río de la Plata

Under the direction of the English architect, Edward Taylor, the New Customs House was built in 1855 back to back with the rear walls of the Fort, facing the river. It is the first public building of great size built by the young mercantile State of Buenos Aires; its semicircular shape had five floors for depots and fifty one storage rooms with arched ceilings, surrounded by loggias. From the central tower at the top of which there was a clock and a beacon, stretched out a 300 m pier providing wharfaging for ships of greater draught to cast their anchors. Via two side ramps carts, loaded with goods, accessed the manoeuvring dock. It was used for almost forty years and it was demolished down to the first floor by the Madero Port project and its foundations are buried under what is today Colón Park.[2]

The Post Office designed by Kihlberg in 1873

The original Casa Rosada and the Post Office

The former Post Office and State House shortly before their 1884 unification

President Domingo Sarmiento ordered the construction of the Postal headquarters in 1873 on open ground that had remained after the south wing of the Buenos Aires Fort had been demolished. This project was carried out by the Swedish architect Carlos Kihlberg (Swedish:Carl August Kihlberg), with a design inspired by Italian Renaissance Revival architecture and French Second Empire details.[2]

As Government House looked totally insignificant compared to this new post office building, President Julio Roca called upon the department of civil engineers to produce a project for extending and repairing the former, and the project submitted by the Swedish architect, Enrique Aberg (Swedish: Henrik Åberg) was adopted. It proposed the demolition of the Fort and the construction of another building, identical to the post office, differentiating it by incorporating a long balcony on the first floor for the use of authorities during public festivities and parades. This was the end of the Fort of which only some walls and one of the cannon holes can be seen in the current Government House museum. For aesthetic reasons and to solve the problem of lack of space it was later decided that the Post Office building be incorporated into Government House. Architect Francesco Tamburini was commended this task. He designed a great central archway to join the two buildings into one, bringing together the surroundings where the New Customs House and Old Arcade were, interpreted by the architect as enveloping a central main axis on which the entrances were located, emphasized by a higher archway.[2]

The first photo is known to the Government House, as we know it today; October 26, 1898

Casa Rosada in a painting of 1910, this view of the back (now Parque Colón).

The outlay of the buildings is three stories on Balcarce Street and four stories plus a basement/galleries of Government House Museum, on Avenida Paseo Colón, practically covering the footage of a whole bloc. All the original rooms that are on the three main façades have direct ventilation and lighting, while the original internal rooms were designed in such a way that ventilation and light should come from the loggia that surround internal patios designed for this purpose. All, except one, were crowned by skylights, of which only two remain. The original structure consists of packwalls of varying thickness and slabs supported by brick counter ceilings with steel or wood roof lines, according to the sector. Following a long process of construction the current building was officially inaugurated in 1898, during the second presidency of General Julio Roca.[2]

• 
  The President's office
• 
  Christ the King Chapel
• 
  The Stained Glass Gallery
• 
  The Hall of Busts
• 
  The Palm Tree Patio
• 
  The Salón Blanco
• 
  The Salón Blanco
• 
  The North Hall
• 
  The South Hall
• 
  Hall of Argentine Bicentennial Women
• 
  Hall of Bicentennial Patriots of Latin America
• 
  Hall of Bicentennial Thinkers and Writers
• 
  Hall of Argentine Bicentennial Scientists
• 
  Hall of Argentine Bicentennial Painters and Paintings (Blue Hall)
• 
  Presidential elevator
• 
  Francia Stairs of Honour
• 
  Italia Stairs of Honour
• 
  Hall of Honour