May Pyramid
The Pyramid of May is the first national monument that the City of Buenos Aires (Argentina) had. It is currently located in the center of the Plaza de Mayo. Its history begins in March 1811 when the Junta Grande decided to order the construction of a monument on the west side of the square, to celebrate the first anniversary of the May Revolution.
In 1856, under the direction of the artist Prilidiano Pueyrredón, it was transformed by building a new pyramid on the foundations of the previous one, which is the one that can be seen today.
In 1912, after having undergone some modifications, it was moved to the current site, 63 m further east of where it was originally located, as it was planned to erect a huge monument that would contain it inside.
The sculpture of Liberty, the work of the French sculptor Joseph Dubourdieu, crowns the monument that, from the ground to the top of the Phrygian cap of said sculpture, has served as a model for the allegory of Argentina, and measures 18, 76 m.
Buenos Aires has its unique fundamental monument, eponymous: the Pyramid of May. Site and umbilical symbol of freedom (...) for those looking at the street is a norm, a ferment and a starting point; for those who contemplate it from the balconies of the House of Government, an index or a reproche. (...) the tourist cannot be described or understood, loved, felt. We're not going to visit her almost ever, either, but we need to know she's there. She is the true Capital of the Nation.Florencio Escardó, in 1945.
History
Inauguration
In March 1811 the Junta Grande decided that the first anniversary of the May Revolution would be celebrated on May 25 of that year, and asked the Cabildo to decide the best way to do it. The latter decided, on April 5, 1811, to approve the celebration program, which included erecting a May 25 Column, on a temporary basis. There is no record left to know why the obelisk shape was chosen for the monument. The truth is that even though that was its shape, it was always called pyramid.
The Plaza de Mayo was then divided by the Recova, forming two squares: the one in front of the current Casa Rosada was called Plazoleta del Fuerte and the one that faced the Cabildo de Buenos Aires, Plaza de la Victoria, whose center was chosen to build the pyramid.
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The builder (as he called the senior master of works) Francisco Cañete was in charge of its construction, at the direction of whom and Don Juan Gaspar Hernández, professor of sculpture from Valladolid, the monument was made with solid materials, among them 500 bricks, instead of using wood as was initially planned.
Did you mean:El 6 de abril de este año se colocaron los cimientos, mientras bandas de música contribuían a la algarabía general.
On May 25, 1811, the work was inaugurated, although it was completed days later, since Cañete was unable to meet the stipulated time. The flags of the Patricios, Arribeños, Pardos and Morenos Regiments, Artillery, Hussars and Grenadiers of the Buenos Aires garrison were placed at the foot of the pyramid. The pyramid and the Cathedral were profusely illuminated. La Recova was illuminated with 1,141 tallow candles. The celebrations lasted four days and included dances, raffles and the manumission of slaves.
On the day of the inauguration, Mariano Moreno's wife, María Guadalupe Cuenca, wrote a letter to her husband, unaware that he had already died on March 4 at sea, in which she commented on the day of the inauguration. the inauguration "They are at a big function in thanksgiving for the installation of the board; Chorroarín preaches, they have made triumphal arches, a Pyramid in the middle of the Plaza, although they have not been able to finish it. Already before, on April 20, in another letter, I told him that "in the main square they are building a pyramid...", this letter is the first reference of a particular that one has about it. For his part, the Buenos Aires chronicler Juan Manuel Beruti wrote about the inaugural celebration: "The great pyramid that decorates the Plaza Mayor of this capital was built there and reminds the posterity of this city of the triumphs. which began to raise its foundations on April 6; but although it is not adorned with the hieroglyphics, lattices and ornaments that it must have due to the shortness of the time that has passed, nevertheless on the four fronts, a tenth was provisionally added in verse, alluding to the work and victories that had been achieved. won the brave troops of this immortal city...".
Although the plans drawn by Cañete were never found, studies carried out later came to the conclusion that it was a hollow pyramid, since due to the pressure of time it was not made of compact masonry. It was made of fired adobe, and was about 13 meters high (mounted on its pedestal it reached about 15 m); it had a plinth on two tiers, a simple pedestal with four recessed angles and a projecting cornice around it. A decorative balloon finished off the set. It was surrounded by a fence supported by twelve pillars of material, each ending in a round knob. In 1812, the same number of posts were placed in the four corners of the fence, from which small lanterns fed with colt's fat hung.
On national holiday days it was profusely decorated with ribbons, pennants, paper lanterns and allusive legends.
In 1826, President Bernardino Rivadavia planned to erect a monument to the men of the May Revolution, which would consist of a magnificent bronze fountain "subrogating the one that exists today", with the inscription: "The Argentine Republic to the authors of the revolution on the memorable May 25, 1810". It was then debated whether it was appropriate to eliminate the Pyramid of May. In any case, the project was not carried out due to Rivadavia's resignation in 1827 and despite the fact that the law was sanctioned by Congress.
In 1834 it was in ruins, peeling and crumbling and its fence twisted and rusted. The provincial government hired bricklayer Juan Sidders and blacksmith Robert M. Gaw to repair them. The arrangement ended in January of the following year, two months after Juan Manuel de Rosas took office as governor.
In 1852 the Jaunet brothers, using a small gasholder, illuminated it with gas lamps, leaving the public, who only knew about lanterns powered by colt oil, astonished.
On May 23, 1854, the Constitution of the State of Buenos Aires was sworn with her. Four decorated pyramids with inscriptions, in the Gothic style, were then placed in its four corners and many decorations made with flowers.
The new Pyramid
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In 1856 the Pyramid of May was once again very abandoned. On April 3 of that year, the Municipality of Buenos Aires was established and the repair of the monument was one of its first measures. A commission appointed for this purpose made up of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Felipe Botet and Isaac Fernández Blanco entrusted the painter and architect Prilidiano Pueyrredón to transform it. He carried out a project with the desire to make it more artistic and grandiose. This idea was accepted and the current one was built, leaving part of the original one inside by covering it with bricks and mortar. He modified the pedestal and the original finish, making it taller and wider. It was equipped in its upper part with a statue of Liberty, whose hair was covered with a Phrygian cap (allegory of Argentina). This statue, 3.6 m high, was made by the French sculptor Joseph Dubourdieu using a mixture of material. This artist was also in charge of creating the symbolic figures of Industry, Commerce, The Sciences and The Arts which were placed in the four corners of the pedestal.
On the faces of the obelisk were also added: a sun that looked towards the rising (that is, towards the current Casa Rosada) in gold, and on the remaining three sides laurel wreaths in high relief. Pueyrredón also modified the original pedestal and capital, increasing their height and width. Representations of the Argentine national shield were placed on the four sides of the base. A new fence was installed that had a gas lantern at each corner. The work was completed on April 27, 1856. It had to be stuccoed imitating marble to give it a more brilliant appearance, but it was not done successfully, so a year later it was stuccoed again.
On October 21, 1860, he witnessed the swearing in of the Constitution of the Argentine Nation by the authorities of the Province of Buenos Aires, headed by Bartolomé Mitre.
Those who visited the city from abroad had different opinions about the monument:
The Plaza de la Victoria, with its statue of Liberty of high pedestal, was for Seymour the most beautiful part of the city; instead Burton made annotations on the obelisk of brick enyesado, with ractical paradises "simples sticks in August", around everything was small, poor and ugly.
In 1859, because the plaster used did not have the expected durability, its base was covered with marble. In 1873 the statues, which were made of baked and stuccoed earth, were in very poor condition, which is why they were removed and replaced by Carrara marble sculptures (The Geography, The Astronomy, Navigation and Industry) that were on the first floor of the Banco Provincia on San Martín Street. These remained until 1912 when, when the pyramid was moved, they were removed and placed in municipal storage. On October 6, 1972, they were located in the old square of San Francisco, at the intersection of Defensa and Alsina streets, about 150 m from the current location of the pyramid. Finally, in July 2017, during a restoration of the monument, they returned to their original location.
In 1883, under the mayor of Torcuato de Alvear, the Recova was demolished and since then the two squares formed the current Plaza de Mayo. The mayor considered that the monument should be demolished and a grander one built in its place, so he asked the Deliberative Council for authorization to carry out the project. He consulted the opinion of distinguished citizens: former presidents Bartolomé Mitre; Domingo F. Sarmiento and Nicolás Avellaneda; Vicente F. López; Andrés Lamas; Miguel Estévez Seguí, who was Chief of Police and President of the Municipality; Ángel Justiniano Carranza, Manuel Ricardo Trelles and José Manuel Estrada. Four of them, Avellaneda, Lamas, Estrada and Estévez Seguí, were inclined to respect it. Thus, for example, Miter believed that "If that monument existed in its primitive and severe simplicity, there is no doubt that it should be preserved (...but...) in such a way that its lines have been adulterated. generals and in its proportions as well as in its rustic architectural style (...) outside the historical tradition that gave it meaning (...) it can and should be demolished as such for being a forgery". Only the basement was considered worthy of respect and conservation.
Sarmiento rejected the desecrations made to the primitive pyramid. Dr. Nicolás Avellaneda believed that it should be restored in its primitive form, stripping it of the ornaments added later, but without destroying it.
Did you mean:En cambio, para Andrés Lamas, el monumento debe conservarse por varias causas:
- because it is the starting point of our own life, when a story is preserved exclusively ours, when the Plaza de la Victoria became forum del pueblo.
- because the people link it with our first victories homelands and because along with it all the important parties are commemorated, which made it the Altar of Freedom.
- Because it is the truth of his timeBecause he's poor because patriots were poor, but free.
- because to demolish it a national law is required to authorize it, since the municipality has no power over it.
There were so many opinions and journalistic protests that the Deliberative Council and Alvear preferred not to innovate. However, on October 25, the National Congress decided to eliminate the "sad monument" and install "a magnificent bronze fountain", but the initiative did not prosper.
The transfer
In 1906, for the celebration of the Argentine Centennial of the May Revolution, among so many planned building works, it was thought to erect a grandiose "Monument to the Revolution of 1810", with the idea, again, of that enclosed the May Pyramid inside. An international competition was then held which was won by two Italians. The location of the monument had to be the center of the Plaza de Mayo, for which the transfer of the Pyramid was necessary, which was only carried out in 1912, under the direction of Anselmo Borrel.
The Historical and Numismatic Board (predecessor of the National Academy of History) previously carried out an analysis that corroborated that the original pyramid was under the additions made in 1857. First, as mentioned above, the statues of marble that was around him. Then it was "sheathed" with wood to protect it during movement. Two rails were placed at a distance of 4 m from each other supported by masonry pillars that had to support the weight of 225 t. Traction was carried out with winches, placing a cement platform under the Pyramid that rested on solid wheels. Thus, step by step, it advanced 63.17 m from November 12 to November 20, 1912, placing a metal urn with a legend referring to its transfer under it at the end of the operation. However, the project to enclose it in another large monument once again came to nothing, partly due to the start of the First World War and partly due to the protests of those who were not in favor of the transfer. Thus, in 1915, when complying with the newspapers' request to replace the tribute plaques that had been removed, everything returned to the same state as before, except for the transfer itself and because, in addition to the statues, the fence was removed and replaced. through a soft grass-covered moat.
Also later the idea was had to restore it to its historical origin, adjusting it as much as possible to its old lines. In addition, the steps and the fence that surrounded it were placed, removing the "stucco framework and inconvenient figures". But later resolutions limited the reforms to placing it at ground level, renewing the paint and replacing the shields with the one from 1813, in addition to returning the original grille.
On May 25, 1941, the Historical Monuments Commission discovered, near the base of the Pyramid, on the west side, a plaque referring to the nobility of the monument, which was declared Historic by Decree of the National Executive Branch No. 120,412 of May 21, 1942.
On May 25, 1960, the authorities of Uruguay gave Argentina a plaque that was placed on the east side that says:
Homenaje del Gobierno y Pueblo Oriental a la gran Nación Argentina en el sesquicentenario de la Revolución de Mayo, fecha glorious con la cual se iniciar el proceso de emancipación de los pueblos libre del Plata.
The stonework that surrounds it has land from each of the Argentine provinces.
The Pyramid and the missing
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During the military dictatorship calling itself "National Reorganization Process" (1976-1983) the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo decided to march every Thursday around the pyramid, the women wearing their hair covered by a white scarf, as a sign of protest and pressure, for the detention-disappearance of their relatives, including about 500 babies.
On March 10, 2005, the Legislature of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires sanctioned Law 1653, which declared "Historic Site" to the area surrounding the May Pyramid. Currently, in that space, the scarves that the mothers of people who disappeared during the military dictatorship usually use on their heads to identify themselves are painted in a stylized manner, between radial lines that form a circle.
On December 8 of the same year, at the request of her children, Azucena Villaflor's ashes were deposited next to the Pyramid of May, in the same place where she began to organize the struggle of the Mothers.
On September 18, 2007, as part of an event with mobilization in the Plaza de Mayo, to remember the anniversary of the disappearance of Jorge Julio López after his statement against the former repressor Miguel Etchecolatz, four ceramics produced by the workers of the Zanón factory, at the foot of the pyramid, near the plaque under which the aforementioned ashes of Azucena Villaflor are found.
Restorations
In May 2010, thanks to a private initiative from a restoration studio called Uffizi, a group of eight people led by José Mastrángelo restored the May Pyramid so that it was in line with the great celebrations of the Bicentennial of the May Revolution. The studio paid for both the materials and the labor. The monument then went through inspection processes, exploratory search, filling of the main body and the edges corroded by time and received a general painting with latex paint.
From the beginning and until mid-2017, on the occasion of the anniversary of the inauguration of 1856, a comprehensive restoration process of the entire monument was carried out by the General Directorate of Heritage, Museums and Historical Center of the Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. The statues that were at its base and that were removed in 1912 were reinstalled, restoring them, as well as the Statue of Liberty that crowns the monument. To the latter, an aluminum tip was added to the spear held by the female figure: the original would have been made of iron, which over time disappeared and was replaced by a wooden one. Work continued on the marbles and the pedestal, which bore traces of vandalism and poor repairs, including the 2010 restoration, which resulted in further deterioration. It was also fenced with a larger fence than the one it had to prevent vandalism, a product of the multiple demonstrations that took place around it. Despite everything, the new defense failed to prevent someone from placing graffiti less than two months later. vandalism with the legend "Where is Santi?", on the sides of the monument, in reference to the search, at that time, for Santiago Maldonado. The work also included the elimination of invasive vegetation around the May Pyramid and the intervention and recovery of the commemorative bronze plaques.
In 2017, the pyramid recovered the four statues that had been removed in 1912 when it was moved to the center of the square.
Commemorative plaque on the west side
In the Pyramid of May there is a single bronze plaque, 85 cm long and 57 cm high, placed on its west side. All its contents are two names: Felipe Pereyra de Lucena and Manuel Artigas. These names, almost unknown to the majority of today's walkers, were inscribed in the Pyramid during the presidency of Dr. Carlos Pellegrini, in 1891, at the initiative of a commission of people who covered the expenses, and in compliance with what was resolved by the Junta Grande in 1811. In fact, on July 31 of that year it had been decided to inscribe in the Pyramid the names of those two people, who were the first two officers who lost their lives on the battlefields fighting for Argentine independence:
- Manuel Artigas was the cousin of the eastern leader, José Gervasio Artigas. He was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1774. During the May Revolution he was part of the revolutionary group that included Domingo French and Antonio Luis Beruti. He acted as captain in the march to Paraguay. Ascendido a commander was a hero in the battle of Campichuelo and on April 25, 1811 he was wounded in San José, dying at 33 years on May 24, 1811.
- Felipe Pereyra de Lucena was born in 1789 and during the English Invasions he acted as a cadet. During the May Revolution he had already reached the rank of lieutenant, starting with that degree towards the campaign of Upper Peru. In June 1811 he achieved the rank of captain. Herido in present Bolivian territory was transferred to the village of Jesús de Machaca where he died on June 20, 1811 at the age of 22 years.
The news of these two casualties caused an impression and the Government Board ordered that their names be engraved on a bronze plate. Since they could not afford the plate, the provision was not complied with. Captain Pereyra de Lucena's father insisted in 1812, but nothing was done. Relatives of the captain insisted again in 1856, but the matter was again suspended. Only in 1891, at the initiative of a group of people, was the plaque paid for by popular subscription, placing it on May 24 of that year.
Replicas
In the city of La Punta (San Luis) there is a replica of the May Pyramid and the Cabildo made according to original plans.
In the Eduardo Costa square, in front of the Municipal Palace of the city of Campana, province of Buenos Aires, it was inaugurated on May 25, 1960 and on the occasion of the celebration of the Sesquicentennial of the first cry of freedom of the Argentine Nation, a replica of the Pyramid of May.
The monument was made at the request of the then Municipal Mayor Calixto B. Dellepiane, and donated by Mr. Adolfo Brand, according to Decree of the D.E. No. 656 dated April 8, 1960 and its subsequent approval by the H.C.D. (Ordinance No. 573/60 dated May 13, 1960).
On the other hand, at one end of Plaza San Martín in the town of Belén de Escobar, also in the province of Buenos Aires, there is another replica of the May Pyramid. It is made of iron and cement.
On the day of the inauguration, a chest with award-winning works and a message from the Dulom couple was deposited inside it, which will be opened on the 100th anniversary of its inauguration in 1961.
There is also a replica of the May Pyramid in San José de Mayo (Eastern Republic of Uruguay), a city where, on April 25, 1811, the combat that is considered the first revolutionary victory took place. A fact that earned the city of San José the recognition of the First Board, which named it San José de Mayo. As a result of wounds received in combat, Captain Manuel Artigas, one of those honored on the west side of the original pyramid, died several days later. The location of said replica is at the confluence of 25 de Mayo and Manuel D. Rodríguez streets in that city.
Another replica can be found in the Italian city of Potenza Picena, being a gift made by Italian immigrants who years later returned to Italy.
On the "Paseo de la Democracia" in the city of Villa Elisa, Province of Entre Ríos, there is a replica of the Pyramid in ash wood, made by the carver Adrián Cabrera. The monument was inaugurated on March 24, 2017 on the occasion of the commemoration of the National Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice.
There is another small replica in the Galician city of Betanzos, within the Parque del Pasatiempo, designed by the Indian Juan García Naveira who dedicates an entire wall of the Park to the Argentine nation.
| Replicas de la Pirámide de Mayo | |||||||||
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Sources consulted
- María del Cármen Magaz (2007). Sculpture and Power. "Art Series" by Acervo Editora Argentina. ISBN 978-987-23100-2-8.
- Revista Buenos Aires tells us no 15 (1991). Director: Elisa Casella de Calderón.
- Carlos Vigil (1968). The Monuments and Historical Places of Argentina. Editorial Atlántida.
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