Charles Thays

Carlos Thays or Jules Charles Thays, according to his birth certificate, (Paris, August 20, 1849 – Buenos Aires, January 31, 1934) He was a French architect, naturalist, landscaper, urbanist, writer and journalist, who did most of his work in Argentina and several relevant ones in Uruguay.

He arrived in Argentina in 1889 to build the Sarmiento Park in the city of Córdoba.

Most of his work was done as Director of Walks in the city of Buenos Aires from 1891 to 1920, he specified and remodeled most of the green spaces that were decisive in shaping the urban image (Parks 3 de Febrero, Los Andes, Florentino Ameghino, Colón, Patricios, Chacabuco, Leonardo Pereyra Park (Barracas, Buenos Aires), Centenario, Lezama, Avellaneda, Intendente Alvear and Barrancas de Belgrano Park as well as the Plaza de Congreso, Plaza de Mayo, Rodríguez Peña, Solís, Castelli, Brown, Balcarce and others). He built gardens for many different public buildings and had 150,000 trees planted in the streets.

He also carried out important landscape works in the rest of the country, highlighting the Parque de la Independencia project in Rosario, Paraná, Mendoza, Tucumán, Salta and Mar del Plata and built parks for residences and ranches.

In addition to his numerous actions in urban planning, he also developed a great activity protecting the natural heritage by promoting the creation of what would be the second national park in Argentina (the Iguazú), encouraging scientific studies with the formation of the Botanical Garden of Buenos Aires as a world-class scientific center and studying the flora of South America through excursions that allowed him to meet native species from different Argentine regions that he acclimatized in Buenos Aires.

Thanks to his interest in providing economic benefits to Argentina in the industrial cultivation of yerba mate, he was able to reveal its germination process.

...have gardens above all the free spaces, even along the avenues. Where there was a usable land, even if it was less than ten meters wide, there, thorough as a Japanese, Mr. Thays with his workers, to transform him into harmonious umbria. It was, literally, on the stalking of all corners in which it was possible to build verdants and sow corollas between favorable trees.

Augusto Bunge (1916)

Biography

Birth and family

Charles Thays was born Jules Charles Thays in Paris on August 20, 1849. He was the son of a Belgian printer (who died when he was very young) and a young woman born in Versailles. He was a disciple of the renowned architect Édouard-François André, of whom he was his secretary.

When he was 41 years old, he met 16-year-old Cora Venturino at a fair, from a Uruguayan family, whom he married. They had two children: Ernestina and Carlos León Thays. Thereafter, each generation of the Thays family descendants adopted the custom of calling by the name "Carlos" to his male child.

Carlos León (1894-1962) was also in charge of the Buenos Aires promenades between 1922 and 1946, and he was the father of Carlos Julio Thays who excelled in the design and execution of more than six hundred parks.

In turn, Carlos Julio's son is Carlos Thays, the Frenchman's great-grandson at the time, who is an agronomist.

Professional acting

Carlos Thays was the creator, remodeler or enlarger of 69 public squares and avenues in Buenos Aires and 16 in the provinces of Santa Fe, Córdoba, Mendoza, Tucumán, etc., in addition to having carried out important works in Uruguay.

He is the man who created the most important green spaces in Argentina – public and private – that without which Buenos Aires would not be Buenos Aires.

He himself designed and directed the works; no equipment, and he used to work 20 hour days.

Public works

Parque Sarmiento de la ciudad de Córdoba; vista of the island Crisol at sunset.

Sarmiento Park in the Capital Cordobesa, View of its gardens.

Carlos Thays arrived in Argentina in 1889, hired for a year after being recommended by his teacher André to the real estate businessman Miguel Crisol, for the design and execution of what was his first work in this country, the magnificent Parque Sarmiento from the city of Córdoba. At the end of his mission he planned to return to his native country, but was delayed in Buenos Aires by the mayor Francisco Bollini, who was determined to name him director of Parks and Walks. As Thays was a man of principles, he decided to accept the challenge only if there was a previous contest, something that thanks to his background he won unanimously despite there being six other applicants.The press was pleased with the news:

In the contest that to opt for this position was held on Sunday at the local of the Municipal Intendence it was unanimously accepted by Mr. Carlos Thays, distinguished landscape architect.

In the "forward action report" that was part of the work that each contest applicant had to write, Thays emphasized two concepts that, although they had already been known in the country for a couple of decades, were not yet sufficiently consolidated: the natural and hygienic of spaces green:

The public urban gardens (...) have been named Pulmones of the Cities and never an expression has been better applied.

And then he meant:

(...) the chemical, climatic, hygiometric and hygienic effects produced by vegetables, and also the influence they can exert on the morals of man.

He also anticipated what was going to be his idea and motivation for the realization of beautiful places of green spaces:

The man, especially the one who works, needs distraction and is there anything healthier, nobler, more true, when it is known to appreciate it, than the contemplation of the trees, of the beautiful flowers, when they are willingly prepared?
The spirit then rests, the sorrows are forgotten at least, and the appearance of the beautiful, of the pure, produces an immediate effect on the heart.
The man returns immediately prays to the work, prays in his family, under the rule of provisions more favorable than those he would have had without those moments of enchanting contemplation.

From the moment of his appointment, he participated in the creation, expansion and remodeling of a large part of the parks and public squares throughout the country. He used to say that:

Happiness nests more in the nobility of a forest than in luxury without green.

Carlos Thays (on the left) and his family, in February 3 Park, observing the construction of the road around the Lake of Regatas.

Despite his work in different provinces of the Argentine interior and abroad, his main contributions can be appreciated in the city of Buenos Aires, where he settled after his appointment as Director of Parks and Walks from 1891. He became the "senior gardener" from Buenos Aires. This position allowed him to significantly influence the design of the city's green spaces, a legacy that can still be appreciated today. Towards the end of the XIX century, the city had almost no wooded areas, promenades or squares, except for the Parque 3 de Febrero recently created by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento.

He created the Botanical Garden on September 7, 1898 in Buenos Aires, which was one of his main works in the country. In the center of it is the house where he lived with his family (1892-1898) and in recognition of his work there is a monument to his memory. In the park you can appreciate the flora of the Argentine provinces and various countries of the world. In it Thays embodied the three types of landscape design: Symetrical, Mixed and Picturesque and with a typical "spirit" of the Belle Époque.

Lezama Park, view towards 1900.

Carlos Thays in 1914, when he was director of Paseos, poses in front of Plaza Francia.

Between 1891 and 1895 the Boardwalks Department finished 22 new boardwalks (up to that moment there were 27). Among the main parks and squares that Thays created, expanded or remodeled as director, mention should be made of the Centenario, Lezama, Patricios, Los Andes, Ameghino, Colón, Chacabuco, Pereyra, Avellaneda, Intendente Alvear, Barrancas de Belgrano and the Constitución, Congreso and Mayo Squares. He did not neglect the promenades of the remote neighborhoods, highlighting in this sense the works in the Olivera, Matheu, San Antonio squares -today Díaz Vélez- and the Chacabuco, de los Patricios and Los Andes parks.

The French style that the landscaper gave to his works can be appreciated in many of these cases (although the mixed English and French style predominated in the design of his gardens), and is one of the reasons why says that Buenos Aires reminds Paris in many ways. However, he knew how to take advantage of the beautiful native forest, so that many squares, parks and streets in Buenos Aires are lined with species from the north and northeast of the country, such as lapachos, ceibos, drunken sticks, jacarandas, tipas and yuchanes., among others.

Los Bosques de Palermo or Parque 3 de Febrero were one of the largest remodeling works undertaken by Thays, since they cover an important extension of land with thousands of trees and flowers, a splendid Rose Garden -the work of his disciple Benito Javier Carrasco- as well as several fountains and monuments, constituting even today in the most characteristic and traditional green area of Buenos Aires. The architect's master plan was to convert the forests of Palermo into a sort of Buenos Aires Bois de Boulogne. Among other contributions, he expanded the park by adding an area of lakes.

Thays developed his work in Argentina during a time when the country was growing strongly, a product of the intense immigration flows from Italy and Spain as well as extraordinary economic prosperity that gave Argentina a certain appearance of &# 34;European island in South America". It has been said that if it had not been for the architect's insistence on maintaining a high standard in the design of squares and promenades, many of the city's public spaces would not be what they represent today. Until 1880 the improvements in streets and squares had been scarce and in general linked more to the wishes and projects of the residents. In that decade, the determined action of the mayor Torcuato de Alvear and his director of walks, the French Eugene Courtis, transformed the Buenos Aires walks from the Spanish type without vegetation to the French green. In 1891 there were only 10,000 alignment trees that had been planted by Courtois but this trend was reversed thanks to Thays's initiative to have 21,250 specimens planted that year (a number surpassed only in 1925, with the cultivation of 22,000 specimens).

Carlos Thays organized the first project to create the Iguazú National Park

He also actively worked in the process that culminated in the creation of the Iguazú National Park, in the Province of Misiones. This National Park was planned prior to its final creation, which only took shape in 1934 with the creation of the National Parks Directorate. The architect and pioneer of this process was Thays, who carried out the first project for the creation and management of a National Park in the country. He carried out a detailed survey of the places where bridges and walkways could be placed, as well as viewpoints. The foundations for the creation of the park were the protection of the magnificent landscape setting of the Iguazú Falls, together with the exuberant Misiones, Paraná or subtropical jungle that surrounds them, with their characteristic animal and plant species.

He also undertook work as an urban planner projecting the Barrio Parque, in 1912, in Palermo Chico, in Buenos Aires; the neighborhood of Carrasco, in Montevideo, a project for the Luro Roca garden-city (Partido de San Vicente, Province of Buenos Aires) and a preliminary project for Pueblo Chovet, in Santa Fe. They show his taste for the use of diagonals, irregular blockades, zoning and other premises of picturesque urbanism that he introduced in Argentina.

July 9 Park in Tucumán; designed by Thays for the celebrations of the "Centenario de la Declaración de la Independencia".

Although Thays carried out his main activities in Buenos Aires, over the years he did not deprive himself of undertaking various civic projects in other cities and places in Argentina: among others, remodeling of Parque Sarmiento (1889) in the city of Córdoba, remodeling of the 20 de Febrero Park in the city of Salta (1900), creation of the 9 de Julio Park in San Miguel de Tucumán (1908), Independence Park in Rosario, General San Martín Park in the city of Mendoza, Urquiza de la city of Paraná, Parque Sarmiento in the city of Azul (Buenos Aires), the beautiful "Plaza 25 de Mayo" from the City of San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca, the Santa Ana Park (where a harmonious symmetry and design with unique tree species in Latin America is observed) designed for the daughter of his compatriot Clodomiro Hileret, owner of the historic Tucuman Santa Ana sugar mill in Tucuman; the Paseo General Paz and Boulevard Marítimo in Mar del Plata (disappeared in 1903 for the construction of the Casino and the Provincial Hotel), as well as the project for a city-amphitheater (the Winter Mansion) in the city of Empedrado in the Province of Currents.

His work articulated the urban fabric of the city, creating a system of boulevards and groves of streets that, together with the beautification of the green spaces, managed to generate a kind of public space with recreational, contemplation and stroll functions; something that until then had not been conceived. He believed that parks did not have to be exclusive to the upper classes and he contributed to the collective space by designing areas for children's games, gazebos for music bands, sports areas and bathrooms for public use. In the larger parks it used to include curved paths, roundabouts, lakes, bridges and sometimes sports and health equipment, while for the smaller ones it preferred to use more regular and symmetrical designs, with the exception of Parque Centenario in Buenos Aires, which is completely radial. and adds a neighborhood of working-class housing that enclosed it like a ring.

The transformation he made of Buenos Aires was so spectacular that he quickly became recognized. The magazine Caras y Caretas published in its number 169 of December 1901 a caricature of him, signed by José María Cao Luaces, in which he called him the "gardener of the Nation".

He was also the director of the thesis of the prominent Argentine landscape architect Benito Javier Carrasco, who graduated with said thesis in the year 1900. In this thesis, Carrasco evaluated the scarce development of landscape and urban studies in the country and began his work for the promotion of academic and theoretical studies on the subject.

Another of his works: Parque Rodó; Montevideo (Uruguay).

Performance in Uruguay

Carlos Thays also carried out important developments with landscaping in Uruguay, where the Carrasco neighborhood (Montevideo), Artigas Boulevard, Plaza Independencia (Montevideo), Batlle Park, José Enrique Rodó Park, the ornamentation of the Plaza de Cagancha, and the gardens of the castle of Idiarte Borda.

A square in the Carrasco neighborhood bears the name of "Carlos Thays" in memory of him and thanks to his work.

Private works

Carlos Thays, in addition to his tireless activity in the public sector, excelled in private work as a landscaper. The Argentine elites appreciated his professional skills and hired him.

This symbiosis allowed him to carry out outstanding work on the lands of the aristocracy of his time, creating beautiful private parks, many of which are now open to the public. In general, they presented the same design pattern: it incorporated water, whether in the form of a lake, stream, pond or fountain, and then added sculptures, pergolas, or openings to view nearby fields. Around the main house, the garden was in the French style, rigid and geometric, while for the rest of the park, nature was allowed to blend in with the environment, seeking a freer and wilder design.

Stay a Durazno. Don Carlos Díaz Vélez property. Transformation of the park.

Among the numerous private works in the province of Buenos Aires, those of the estancias stand out: Villa María, of the Pereda family, in the town of Máximo Paz; La Candelaria, owned by the Piñero family, in Lobos (with a French-style castle, landscaped 100 hectares and introduced 240 species such as araucarias, palms, ombúes, casuarinas and pines); A Peach, by Carlos Díaz Vélez, in Rauch; San Luis, by Mercedes Saavedra Zelaya, in Junín; San Pablo, of the Egaña-Díaz Vélez family, in Monte; Dos Talas, from the family of Pedro Luro, in Dolores; La Porteña, of the Guerrico-Güiraldes, in San Antonio de Areco (here he planted eucalyptus, Lebanon cedars, oaks and an access avenue with a tree native to the Mediterranean, the hackberry), La Rica, owned by the López family, in Chivilcoy and La Larga and La Argentina, both owned by former President Julio Argentino Roca, in Daireaux and San Andrés de Giles respectively. To these are added, in addition, the ranches: La Concepción, in Lobos; La Cautiva, in Coronel Vidal; La Benquerencia, in San Miguel del Monte; San Eliseo, in San Vicente; La Tradición, in Moreno, El Mirador, in Cañuelas and the chalet with park for the Sansinena family in General Daniel Cerri.

In the province of Córdoba, Thays designed the parks of the establishments: La Paz, also owned by former president Julio Argentino Roca, in Ascochinga, Province of Córdoba, the park of Chateau Carreras to the west of the city of Córdoba and the gardens of the Ferreyra Palace (1913) in the same city.

But the particular work of the garden gentleman was not limited to the parks and gardens of the rich, but he worked both for the ranchers and for the workers. He was always willing to build squares, at the request of the neighbors who asked him to do so.

To promote the planting of trees, he had the idea of establishing, on September 11 and in commemoration of the death of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Arbor Day. It was the way through which he approached all the neighbors and the students, in particular, who went to the squares to plant trees.

Together with Perito Moreno and other prominent figures, he founded the Association of Argentine Boy Scouts on July 4, 1912.

Scientific experiments

Carlos Thays observing yerba mate plants at the Botanical Garden of Buenos Aires (photo collection Thays).

Carlos Thays was a student of South American flora and made numerous scientific excursions that helped him to learn about native Argentine species and acclimatize them in the Buenos Aires Botanical Garden. His experiences were described in a book called Les Fôrets naturelles de la République Argentine (1913).

Exploration travel

He made a journey through Lake Nahuel Huapi and Chile, through Córdoba and San Luis, Entre Ríos and Corrientes, Santa Fe, Chaco and Formosa, province of Buenos Aires and Misiones (perhaps the province that left him most impacted by his jungle, in which he studied, photographed, and valued various trees) and the northwestern region (Salta, Tucumán, and Jujuy), where he met the tipa tree, a tree that he considered magnificent, useful, and ideal for cities that are not too cold. As with this last tree, there were many others that he saw on his different tours and were later introduced by him to the city of Buenos Aires to adorn it with extensive groves, such as the lapacho, the ceibo, the jacaranda and the palo drunk.

During his trip to the Iguazú Falls, he worried about the looting of the forest and about the depredation and spirit of speculation that would exist if the forest wealth of that area were left within the reach of anyone.

Industrial production of yerba mate

Yerba mate in the Buenos Aires Botanical Garden, where Carlos Thays tested his method to achieve his industrial production.

At the end of the XVIII century, after the expulsion of the Jesuits, the yerbales de mate (Ilex paraguariensis), they were lost as productive exploitation. Its replacement was made difficult because the methods that had allowed the Jesuits to produce germination on an industrial scale were unknown.

At the beginning of the XX century, only wild yerba mate was harvested in Argentina. Faced with the need to import yerba from Brazil and Paraguay to satisfy domestic consumption and the way in which existing yerba fields were razed to harvest their leaves, Thays investigated seed germination methods. This had already been attempted by the naturalist Aimé Bonpland, who had lived in the current province of Corrientes, but his studies had failed.

In 1895 he received the first yerba mate seeds and plant segments. The segments did not thrive, but he managed to germinate the seeds by subjecting them to prolonged immersion in high-temperature water.

(...) about fifteen years ago and after having made a certain amount of experiences, I successfully used in the Botanical Garden the very simple way of preparing the grains through a special immersion whose recipe has been published. I obtained a large number of specimens that can be called domestics that produce grains that germinate, although a little slow, without any preparation.

Thus, his methodology began to spread, with which the planting and cultivation of the yerba mate plant began throughout Mesopotamia, a fact that gave way to an important industry.

His method was published in the Bulletin of the National Agricultural Society of Paraguay. Due to its success, the Directorate of Agriculture and Livestock of the Argentine Nation confirmed the effectiveness of the Thays system and disclosed it in the northeastern region of the country.

The Botanical Garden of Buenos Aires

Monument to Carlos Thays erected in front of the main building of the Botanic Garden of Buenos Aires.

The Botanical Garden of Buenos Aires was the result of research carried out by Thays on the forest characteristics of our country and from which he proposed projects for the formation of national parks, in order to preserve the most valuable ensembles in Argentina.

It was on February 22, 1892 that he submitted to the Municipal Administration, under Francisco Bollini, a project exposing the need to create a aclimatization botanical garden for scientific, recreational and landscape purposes, advising to do it in the place that it currently occupies and in which the National Department of Agriculture and the National Historical Museum functioned at that time. He first filled in the site with more fertile soil from other regions, and inaugurated it on September 7, 1898. Over time, Thays turned the Botanical Garden into a botanical research center of international importance.

Jules Huret, a French journalist at the time for the newspaper Le Figaro and the newspaper La Nación in Argentina, stated:

The Botanical Garden of Buenos Aires, located in the vicinity of Palermo, is undoubtedly the most beautiful and complete of the botanical gardens of the world. If you don't have the sumptuous beauty of Rio de Janeiro, you'll find, from a scientific point of view, a collection of trees of South America.(...)
The Argentine section is a true creation (...) But M. Thays, not happy to constitute only a local flora, has provided trees from all latitudes, certainly wishing to prove that plants like men are easily accommodated to the Argentine climate.

Writer and journalist

Carlos Thays was also a writer and journalist. He was the author of the first Argentine book on landscaping, dedicated to the Buenos Aires Botanical Garden and published in 1910 by the house of Jacobo Peuser. In it he recounted the history of the Garden and made a scientific contribution by listing the botanical collections that he formed there.

In France he was editor of the Revue Horticole for ten years. This was one of the most important journalistic organs on gardening in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries.

In his March 1912 report on the Iguazú Falls area, submitted to the National Government, there are 103 spectacular photographs of the expedition led by Thays and he recounted the trip and his proposal to create a National Park there. This only materialized in 1934.

He wrote a text called "Les fôrets naturelles de la République Argentine", written for the International Congress of Forests in Paris, in 1913, which describes the forests and beauties of Argentina, especially the Waterfalls Iguazú and Lake Nahuel Huapi.

He was the author of numerous reports and memoirs.

Personality

Caricature of Carlos Thays in the magazine Caras y Caretas (Argentina) 1901.

The love that Thays had for the Uruguayan Cora Venturino led him to become familiar with the country and integrate with it.

Committed to the country that hosted him and to the French community there, he held positions in many different institutions: vice president of the Société Philantropique du Río de la Plata, president of the Club Francais, president of the Comité des Sociétés Francaises, vice president of the Centennial Committee, President of the Patriotic Committee, member of the Allies Committee, honorary member of the Argentine Rural Society, the Central Society of Architects, the Horticultural Society and the Forestry Society.

His grandson, who only knew him until he was eight years old, has described him as very happy, and he remembered that although he was fluent in Spanish, he never stopped singing songs from his native country and especially La Marseillaise.

The prominent French physician, journalist, and politician Georges Clemenceau opined in 1911

M. Thays is a modest and smiling man who strives to prove he has done nothing.

Jules Huret left testimony of how much he was loved when he affirmed that he considered him

...one of our most esteemed compatriots, M. Thays, the great Argentinian Le Nôtre.

M. Thays has remained a good Frenchman of heart, but wishes to die in Argentina, where he is loved and appreciated in his just value. Before him, the sun reigned along all the public roads; he designed all his squares, all his squares that planted with trees: he has treed around four hundred streets, in a word, he has created the shadow of Buenos Aires.

He worked either for the most powerful rancher or for the humblest neighbor

...if the neighbors of a neighborhood asked him for a square, he did it, if they asked him for flowers for a party, he sent them to him in the municipal car.

Death

Carlos Thays died in Buenos Aires on January 31, 1934.

A large crowd, made up largely of both students and workers, accompanied his remains to the Chacarita Cemetery.

The prestigious architect René Karman fired him with these words

Charles Thays, from whom I will not recount his immense work, leaves us the example of a life of all labor and action in the service of a talent and enlightened taste(...) work (...) full of science and knowledge, is and will be for the majority a work of beauty and art.
The beauty, created for the formation of the gardens and the parks of Buenos Aires, constitutes the most beautiful ornament; all the inhabitants of this great city have therefore a legitimate pride...

Distinctions and tributes

Carlos Thays has received various awards over the years:

• 1904 Honorary Partner of the Central Society of Architects.
• 1906 Knight of the Order of Agricultural Merit (France).
  Nichan Iftikar dealer. Tunisia.
• 1937 The Botanic Garden of Buenos Aires received its name.
• 1998 The Thays Park was opened in Buenos Aires, an area of 4.5 ha.
• 2009 Show the public, "Carlos Thays, a French gardener in Buenos Aires" (Sonia Berjman) planner, photos and sketches of the parks that he designed, at the Recoleta Cultural Center.

List of works

The following lists have been obtained from the book Carlos Thays. A French gardener in Buenos Aires. by Sonia Berjman

Public work in Buenos Aires City.

(rides carry the name by which they are currently known)

And other rides that no longer exist.

Interior public works

Other works:

• Parque Santa Ana, Ingenio Santa Ana – Tucumán – 1894
• Parque Ingenio Mercedes – Tucumán – 1906
• Club Hotel Sierra de la Ventana – 1909
• Camet Club Mar del Plata Park – 1909
• Studies in the Nahuel Huapi area - 1910

Residence gardens:

Parks of ranches:

This list was made by collecting the documentary data of the original plans existing in the Thays Archive.