The ''Casa Rosada'' (), , is the president of the Argentine Republic's official workplace, located in

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 ...

. The palatial mansion is known officially as ''Casa de Gobierno'' ("House of Government" or "Government House"). Normally, the president lives at the Quinta de Olivos, the president of Argentina's official residence, located in Olivos,

Greater Buenos Aires Greater Buenos Aires (, GBA), also known as the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (, AMBA), refers to the urban agglomeration comprising the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of B ...

. The characteristic color of the Casa Rosada is baby pink, and it is considered one of the most emblematic buildings in Buenos Aires. The building also houses a museum, which contains objects relating to former presidents of Argentina. It has been declared a National Historic Monument of Argentina.

History

The ''Casa Rosada'' sits at the eastern end of the

Plaza de Mayo The Plaza de Mayo (, ; ) is a city square and the main foundational site of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was formed in 1884 after the demolition of the Recova building, unifying the city's Plaza Mayor and Plaza de Armas, by that time known as ''Pl ...

, a large square which since the 1580 foundation of

has been surrounded by many of the most important political institutions of the city and of Argentina. The site, originally at the shoreline of the

Río de la Plata The Río de la Plata (; ), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda, Colonia, Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and ...

, was first occupied by the "Fort of Juan Baltazar of Austria", a structure built on the orders of the founder of Buenos Aires, Captain

Juan de Garay Juan de Garay (1528–1583) was a Spanish conquistador. Garay's birthplace is disputed. Some say it was in the city of Junta de Villalba de Losa in Castile, while others argue he was born in the area of Orduña (Basque Country). There's ...

, in 1594. Its 1713 replacement by a masonry structure (the "Castle of San Miguel") complete with turrets made the spot the effective nerve center of colonial government. Following independence, President

Bernardino Rivadavia Bernardino de la Trinidad González Rivadavia (May 20, 1780 – September 2, 1845) was the first President of Argentina, then called the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, from February 8, 1826 to June 27, 1827. He was educated at th ...

had a Neoclassical portico built at the entrance in 1825, and the building remained unchanged until, in 1857, the fort was demolished in favor of a new customs building. Under the direction of British Argentine architect Edward Taylor, the

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 ...

structure was Buenos Aires' largest building from 1859 until the 1890s.Museum of the Casa Rosada: history
Casa Rosada: History
The old fort's administrative annex, which survived the construction of Taylor's Customs House, was enlisted as the presidential offices by

Bartolomé Mitre Bartolomé Mitre (26 June 1821 – 19 January 1906) was an Argentine statesman, soldier and author. He was President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868 and the first president of Argentine Civil Wars#National unification, unified Argentina. Mitre i ...

in the 1860s and his successor,

Domingo Sarmiento Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (15 February 1811 – 11 September 1888) was President of Argentina from 1868 to 1874. He was a member of a group of intellectuals, known as the ''1837 generation, Generation of 1837'', who had a great influence on 19t ...

, who beautified the drab building with patios, gardens and wrought-iron grillwork, had the exterior painted pink reportedly in order to defuse political tensions by mixing the red and white colors of the country's two opposing political parties: red was the color of the Federalists, while white was the color of the Unitarians. An alternative explanation suggests that the original paint contained cow's blood to prevent damage from the effects of

humidity Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation (meteorology), precipitation, dew, or fog t ...

. Sarmiento also authorized the construction of the Central Post Office next door in 1873, commissioning

Swedish Argentine Swedish Argentines are Argentine people, Argentine citizens of Swedes, Swedish descent, as well as Swedish-born people who reside in Argentina. The history of Swedish settlement in Argentina took place principally in the mid to late 19th centu ...

architect Carl Kihlberg, who designed this, one of the first of Buenos Aires' many examples of Second Empire architecture. Presiding over an unprecedented socio-economic boom, President Julio Roca commissioned architect Enrique Aberg to replace the cramped State House with one resembling the neighboring Central Post Office in 1882. Following works to integrate the two structures, Roca had architect Francesco Tamburini build the iconic Italianate archway between the two in 1884. The resulting State House, still known as the "Pink House", was completed in 1898 following its eastward enlargement, works which resulted in the destruction of the customs house. A Historical Museum was created in 1957 to display presidential memorabilia and selected belongings, such as sashes, batons, books, furniture, and three carriages. The remains of the former fort were partially excavated in 1984–85, and the uncovered structures were incorporated into the Museum of the Casa Rosada. Located behind the building, these works led to the rerouting of Paseo Colón Avenue, unifying the Casa Rosada with Parque Colón (Columbus Park) behind it. Plans were announced in 2009 for the restoration of surviving portions of Taylor's Customs House, as well. The Casa Rosada itself in 2006 underwent extensive renovation delayed by the 2001 economic crisis. The first phase was completed for the 2010 bicentennial of the

May Revolution The May Revolution () was a week-long series of events that took place from 18 to 25 May 1810, in Buenos Aires, capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. This Spanish colony included roughly the territories of present-day Argentina, ...

that led to independence, with a second phase begun in 2017.

Evolution of the Casa Rosada

The 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,

founded the city at the place which was to be the Plaza Mayor (nowadays

), 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

modified the fort in 1820, and the drawbridge was replaced by a neoclassical portico. The site, which was for defence at that time, and also the seat of the Spanish and Home governments, is where Government House currently stands. In the Pink House Museum there is a cannon-ball hole in part of a storage room of the Royal Treasury's warehouse.

New Customs House

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 The State of Buenos Aires () was a secessionist republic resulting from the overthrow of the Argentine Confederation government in the Province of Buenos Aires on 11 September 1852. The State of Buenos Aires was never explicitly recognized b ...

; its semicircular shape had five floors for depots and fifty-one storage rooms with arched ceilings, surrounded by

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior Long gallery, gallery or corridor, often on an upper level, sometimes on the ground level of a building. The corridor is open to the elements because its outer wall is only parti ...

s. From the central tower, which had a clock and a beacon at its top, stretched out a 300 m pier where ships of greater draught could anchor. Goods carts could access the dock via two side ramps carts. It was used for almost forty years, then demolished down to the first floor by the

Madero Port Madero may refer to: People * Abel Sierra Madero (born 1976), Cuban author and scholar * Adalberto Madero (born 1969), Mexican lawyer and politician * Alberto Madero (1923–2011), Argentine rower * Eduardo Madero (1823–1894), Argentine merchant ...

project; its foundations are buried under what is today Colón Park.

The Post Office Palace

President

ordered the construction of the Postal headquarters in 1873 on open ground that had remained after the south wing of the

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 Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ar ...

and

French Second Empire The Second French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the government of France from 1852 to 1870. It was established on 2 December 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, president of France under the French Second Republic, who proclaimed hi ...

details. 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-ball 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 would 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, enveloping a central main axis on which the entrances were located, emphasized by a higher archway.

The Palace

The buildings have three storeys on Balcarce Street and four storeys plus a basement/galleries of Government House Museum, on Avenida Paseo Colón, practically extending over a whole city block. All the original rooms that are on the three main façades have direct ventilation and lighting, while the original internal rooms were designed for ventilation and light to come from the loggias surrounding internal patios built for this purpose. All, except one were crowned by

skylight A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes. History O ...

s, 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.

Rooms

The president sits at his or her office on a seat named the "Seat of Rivadavia"; it was not used by

, the first president of Argentina, but named in his honour. The Hall of Busts houses marble busts of the many presidents of Argentina, made by diverse artists both national and international. The list, however, is not exhaustive, and subjected to political biases. President

Néstor Kirchner Néstor Carlos Kirchner Ostoić (; 25 February 195027 October 2010) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the president of Argentina from 2003 to 2007. A member of the Justicialist Party, he previously served as Governor of Sa ...

ordered in 2006 the removal of all busts of presidents who took power via coups, but the busts of José Félix Uriburu, Pedro Pablo Ramírez and

Edelmiro Julián Farrell Edelmiro Julián Farrell Plaul (; 12 February 1887 – 21 October 1980) was an Argentine general. He was the ''de facto'' president of Argentina between 1944 and 1946. Farrell had a great influence on later Argentine history by introducin ...

were spared and finally removed during the administration of Mauricio Macri. President

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner (; born 19 February 1953), often referred to by her initials CFK, is an Argentine lawyer and former politician who served as the 56th president of Argentina from 2007 to 2015, and later as the 37th Vice ...

broke the timeline order of the busts, and placed instead the busts of Kirchner, Raúl Alfonsín, Hipólito Yrigoyen and

Juan Perón Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine military officer and Statesman (politician), statesman who served as the History of Argentina (1946-1955), 29th president of Argentina from 1946 to Revolución Libertad ...

in a prominent location. The administration of Macri reordered the busts under the supervision of the National Academy of History of Argentina, and

Alberto Fernández Alberto Ángel Fernández (; born 2 April 1959) is an Argentine politician, lawyer, and academic who served as President of Argentina from 2019 to 2023. He was also the Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers from 2003 to 2008. His tenure as Cabin ...

restored the order set by Cristina Kirchner. President

Javier Milei Javier Gerardo Milei (born 22 October 1970) is an Argentine politician and economist who has served as President of Argentina since 2023. Milei also served as a national deputy representing the City of Buenos Aires for the party La Libertad ...

added the bust of

Carlos Menem Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) served as the 50th president of Argentina for ten years, from 1989 to 1999. He identified as Peronism, Peronist, serving as President of the Justicialist Party for 13 years (from 1990 to 200 ...

next to Mitre, Pellegrini, Sarmiento and Roca, while those of Kirchner and Alfonsín were moved away. The internal regulations specify that presidents should have a bust eight years after they leave office, but for varied reasons

Isabel Perón Isabel Martínez de Perón (, born María Estela Martínez Cartas; 4 February 1931) is an Argentine politician who served as the 41st president of Argentina from 1974 to 1976. She was one of the List of elected and appointed female heads of s ...

Fernando de la Rúa Fernando de la Rúa (15 September 19379 July 2019) served as the President of Argentina from 1999 until his resignation in 2001. A member of the Radical Civic Union, he previously served as national senator for Buenos Aires across non-consecuti ...

Adolfo Rodríguez Saá Adolfo Rodríguez-Saá (; born 25 July 1947) is an Argentina, Argentine Peronism, Peronist politician. Born in a family that was highly influential in the history of the San Luis Province, he became the province's Governor of San Luis, governo ...

and

Eduardo Duhalde Eduardo Alberto Duhalde (; born 5 October 1941) is an Argentina, Argentine former peronist politician who served as the interim President of Argentina from January 2002 to May 2003. He also served as Vice President of Argentina, Vice President ...

do not have busts.

Interior

File:Despacho Presidencial argentino 2.JPG, The President's office File:Capilla Cristo Rey.jpg, Christ the King Chapel File:Galeria de los vitrales.JPG, The Stained Glass Gallery File:Salón de los bustos, Casa Rosada.jpg, The Hall of Busts File:Patio de las Palmeras, Casa Rosada.jpg, The Palm Tree Patio File:Salón Blanco (1), AA 2014.jpg, The Salón Blanco File:Salón Blanco.jpg, The Salón Blanco File:Salón Norte 2.JPG, The North Hall File:Salón Sur 2.JPG, The South Hall File:Salón Mujeres del Bicentenario.JPG, Hall of Argentine Bicentennial Women File:Salon Patriotas Casa Rosada .jpg, Hall of Bicentennial Patriots of Latin America File:Salondelosescritoresypensadoresdelbicentenario.jpg, Hall of Bicentennial Thinkers and Writers File:CABA - Monserrat - Casa Rosada - Salón de los Científicos Argentinos del Bicentenario.jpg, Hall of Argentine Bicentennial Scientists File:Salón Azul - Palacio de Gobierno de la República Argentina.jpg, Hall of Argentine Bicentennial Painters and Paintings (Blue Hall) File:Ascensor presidencial.JPG, Presidential elevator File:Escalera Francia.jpg, Francia Stairs of Honour File:Escalera Italia.jpg, Italia Stairs of Honour File:Hall de Honor - Salón de Bustos · Casa Rosada.jpg, Hall of Honour

Exterior

2018-10-19 Buenos Aires by Sandro Halank–018.jpg, View from Plaza de Mayo File:Casa de Gobierno- Casa Rosada Lateral.JPG, View of the north wing and the porte-cochère file:Casa Rosada, Buenos Aires 2012-05-22 03.JPG, Clock File:Acceso por Rivadavia.jpg, Entrance on Rivadavia Street File:Casa Rosada-ART.JPG, The presidential balcony file:Puerto Madero, Casa Rosada, Plaza de Mayo 01.jpg, View from Puerto Madero File:Casa Rosada02.jpg, The Italianate portico File:Buenos Aires 2005 - Casa Rosada (39016298).jpg, Equestrian statue of Manuel Belgrano File:Casa Rosada, Buenos Aires 2012-05-22 06.JPG, Sculpture file:Escudo de la Argentina, AA Buenos Aires 2014.jpg, Coat of arms of Argentina

References

External links

* {{Authority control Official residences in Argentina Government buildings in Argentina Presidential residences Palaces in Buenos Aires National Historic Monuments of Argentina Houses completed in 1884 Neoclassical palaces in Argentina Museums in Buenos Aires History museums in Argentina 1938 disestablishments in Argentina 1879 establishments in Argentina 1886 establishments in Argentina 1898 establishments in Argentina