You know, i enjoy a lot wandering by Buenos Aires, with every step i take i feel like i'm claiming that this is my home, i own buenos aires and she owns me. I feel love feeling like a part of it's history, i know it's silly, nationalism is silly, it's sort of like religion i think..., you know that it has been created by mankind to have a control over the masses and to solve certain questions, but you still can't shake that feeling of belonging to it...
Ok, enough of philosophy, yesterday i went to my favorite park in bs as, the "Plaza San Martín" and took a couple of pictures, the building you see above is Called Kavanagh Building, it's a racionalistic and art deco style building that gets it's name from her former owner, Corina Kavanagh. This is one of the most emblematic buildings of the city, by the time it was built (1930's) it was latin america's tallest concrete tower.
Nevermind that, the reason i'm posting the picture i took from my walking through the park is to tell the story behind the building.
I've heard the story several times from diferent people and certain details tend not to match, but they are minimal.
It's goes like this. The Kavanagh family was one of the wealthier families in Argentina, but they did not hold an aristocratic position (in argentina no noble titles are recognized, but still, there are certain "historic" names), on the other side, the Anchorena family belonged to both groups, so when one of Corina's daugthers (this is where it gets tricky, i don't know if it's a daughter of Corina or the actual Corina) falls in love with one of the Anchorena's heirs, they deny to give their concent to such a relationship.
Now, The Anchorena Family lived in a palace now known as Palacio San Martin, right across the Plaza San Martín, and they had build a chapel right on the other side of the park, so they could see it from their home. It is said that Corina's fury was such that she sold all of her properties in order to finance the construction of this building. The objective was to block the chapel and kind of get even with the Anchorena family.
I think it's a cool story to decoure this magnificent building :).
BTW, you can see the chappel in the picture above, it's the one that's a little bit to the left from the building, it doesn't look that great in the picture, but it's a gorgeous church.
And if i left you wondering or mad about my nationalism comparison to religion, i'm not atheist, i am christian, i just don't belive everything as it's told, i can belive participation from god, but human corruption is undeniable, so i hold my thoughts on how religion is used as an organization, perhaps i should have been more clear about that earlier :P.
Be seeing ya!
