The Bernasconi Institute is an architecturally-significant

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

in the

Parque Patricios Parque Patricios is a ''barrio'' located on the southern side of Buenos Aires, Argentina belonging to the fourth ''comuna''. Parque Patricios underwent a transformation during the beginning of the 1900s. The government moved the main slaughterho ...

section of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, Argentina. It sits on an eight-hectare (20 acre) property in the city's southside.

History

The property became the site of a homemade museum in 1866, when 14-year-old

Francisco Moreno Francisco Pascasio Moreno (May 31, 1852 – November 22, 1919) was a prominent explorer and academic in Argentina, where he is usually referred to as ''Perito'' Moreno (''perito'' means "specialist, expert"). Perito Moreno has been credited as on ...

and his father classified and mounted their extensive collection of fossils and artifacts, gathered in excursions. Following his landmark exploration of

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

during the 1870s and 1880s, Moreno established a charitable school at the estate. This soon became a magnet for the largely underprivileged children of the

Nueva Pompeya Nueva Pompeya (Spanish for ''New Pompei''), often loosely referred to as Pompeya, is a neighbourhood in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Located in the South side, it has long been one of the city's proletarian districts steeped in the tradit ...

area. He sold the property to

Swiss Italian The Italian language in Italian Switzerland or Swiss Italian (, ) is the variety of the Italian language taught in the Italian-speaking area of Switzerland. While this variety is mainly spoken in the canton of Ticino and in the southern part ...

shoe manufacturer Félix Bernasconi, who included the school in his will. Bernasconi's death in 1914 was followed by lobbying for federal contributions to the project by Moreno, who leveraged the prestige he earned in his role in the Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina and as Assistant Director of the National Education Council to secure funding.''Historical Dictionary of Argentina''. London: Scarecrow Press, 1978. Francisco Moreno stones La Plata Museum

Passed the

Argentine Congress The National Congress of Argentina () is the legislative branch of the government of Argentina. Its composition is bicameral, constituted by a 72-seat Senate and a 257-seat Chamber of Deputies. The Senate, a third of whose members are elected to ...

in 1918, Law 1420 provided the needed appropriations, and on 26 September 1921, the cornerstone was laid in a ceremony led by President

Hipólito Yrigoyen Juan Hipólito del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Yrigoyen (12 July 1852 – 3 July 1933) was an Argentine politician of the Radical Civic Union who served as President of Argentina from 1916 to 1922 and again from 1928 until his overthrow in ...

. Designed by local architect Juan Waldrorp, the eclectic,

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

-influenced building was the largest school built in Buenos Aires to that point, and measured 140 m (460 ft) in length.Nuevo Ciclo: Un palacio para escuela
The school opened in April 1929. Heading an establishment which initially included separate boys' and girls' schools, its first director, Rosario Vera Peñaloza (1873–1950), created the Argentine Primary School Museum, which includes an antiquarian library,

landscape art Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction in painting of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, rivers, trees, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coh ...

exhibits and

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

s. She and one of her successors, Martha Salotti (1899–1980) were recognized during the late 1990s when two streets in the new,

Puerto Madero Puerto Madero, also known within the urban planning community as the Puerto Madero Waterfront, is a Barrios and Communes of Buenos Aires, ''barrio'' of Buenos Aires in the Buenos Aires Central Business District, Central Business District. Occup ...

district were named in their honor.

Design

The Bernasconi Institute featured a

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a musical keyboard, keyboard and consists of at least 23 bells. The bells are Bellfounding, cast in Bell metal, bronze, hung in fixed suspension, and Musical tuning, tu ...

tower, two, 1,200 m² (13,000 ft²)

patio A patio (, ; ) is an outdoor space generally used for dining or recreation that adjoins a structure and is typically paved. In Australia, the term is expanded to include roofed structures such as a veranda, which provides protection from sun ...

s, two heated indoor pools, an

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoriums can be found in entertainment venues, community halls, and t ...

seating 370. It included archaeological and natural science museumsthe ''Museo Geográfico Dr. Juan B. Terán'' and the ''Museo de Ciencias Naturales Dr. Ángel Gallardo''created largely with exhibits drawn from Moreno's vast collections (housed mainly in the

La Plata Museum The La Plata Museum () is a natural history museum in La Plata, Argentina. It is part of the (Natural Sciences School) of the National University of La Plata. The building, long, today houses three million fossils and relics (including 44,000 bo ...

Enrollment

Remaining among the largest in Buenos Aires, the institute's four primary schools enroll around 3,600 students yearly, and its

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

, around 580, as well as an

adult education Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained educating activities in order to gain new knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. Merriam, Sharan B. & Brockett, Ralph G. ''The Pr ...

facility.

References and external links

Buenos Aires.gov: Instituto Bernasconi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernasconi Institute Schools in Argentina Buildings and structures in Buenos Aires Educational institutions established in 1929 School buildings completed in 1929 1929 establishments in Argentina