The Centro Cultural Recoleta () is an exhibition and cultural events centre located in the ''
barrio
''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city delimited by functional (e.g. residential, comm ...
'' of
Recoleta,
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 holds sculptures and exhibitions, as well as concerts and artistic presentations and workshops of diverse types.
in September/October 2006 it held the wildly successful
onedotzero festival attracting over 20,000 people in 3 days for installations, live performances, screenings and music.
History
left, As a shelter for the homeless, circa 1880.
The building where the cultural centre is located was originally donated to the
Franciscan
The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...
s in 1716. The blueprints of the construction were drawn by
Jesuit
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
architects Juan Krauss and Juan Wolf, while the design of the
façade
A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face".
In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...
and interiors are attributed to Andrés Blanqui.
The building, finished in 1732, is one of the oldest in the city. With the arrival 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, ...
and the
declaration of independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...
during the first part of the 19th century, the building changed purposes.
Manuel Belgrano
Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano (3 June 1770 – 20 June 1820), usually referred to as Manuel Belgrano (), was an Argentina, Argentine public servant, economist, lawyer, politician, journalist, and military leader. He to ...
founded a drawing school there, and since the 1870s it served as a shelter for the destitute.
Torcuato de Alvear
Torcuato de Alvear y Saenz de la Quintanilla (12 April 1822 – 8 December 1890) was an Argentina, Argentine conservative politician. He was the son of soldier and statesman Carlos María de Alvear and father of Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear, presi ...
, first mayor of Buenos Aires, beautified Recoleta as well as the cultural centre;
Juan Antonio Buschiazzo
Juan Antonio Buschiazzo (October 29, 1845 – May 13, 1917) was an Italian-born Argentine architect and engineer who contributed to the modernisation of Buenos Aires, Argentina in the 1880s and to the construction of the city of La Plata, the new ...
gave it an Italian style and created the chapel currently used as an auditorium.
The second important renovation took place around 1980 by
Clorindo Testa
Clorindo Manuel José Testa (December 10, 1923 – April 11, 2013) was an Italian-Argentine architect and artist.
Testa was one of the leaders of the Argentine rationalist movement and one of the pioneers of the brutalist movement in Argenti ...
,
Jacques Bedel
Jacques or Jacq are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over one hundred identified noble families related t ...
and
Luis Benedit
Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...
, when the building was planned as a cultural centre.
Gallery
File:Buenos_aires_design.jpg,
File:CCRecoleta008.JPG,
File:CCRecoleta007.JPG,
File:CCRecoleta006.JPG,
External links
*
{{coord, 34, 35, 11, S, 58, 23, 32, W, source:kolossus-eswiki, display=title
Recoleta, Centro Cultural
Recoleta, Centro Cultural
Tourist attractions in Buenos Aires
Arts centres in Argentina