Towards the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century, an asiento of slaves belonging to the Compagnie de Guinée and South Sea Company was installed in the area, which operated until 1739.[1]
The first dissident cemetery of Buenos Aires, located in the vicinity of Iglesia Nuestra Señora del Socorro was built in 1821. In this cemetery people who professed the Protestant religion, mostly English, were buried. The dissident cemetery operated in the neighborhood of Retiro until 1833, and was transferred that same year to the neighborhood of Balvanera.[4]
In 1910, the British residents of Buenos Aires financed the construction of the Torre de los Ingleses (renamed in 1982 to Torre Monumental), on the occasion of the centenary of the May Revolution. The work was entrusted to the English architect Ambrose Macdonald Poynter,[6] being inaugurated by the president Victorino de la Plaza on May 24, 1916 .[7]
Retiro is one of the main transportation hubs in Argentina, and is home to many high-end stores and residential areas popular among both local wealthy gentry and expatriate executives. About 26,000 of its people, however, including thousands of immigrants, live in the "Villa 31" shantytown built along the Port of Buenos Aires from the 1930s onwards.[8] Local and long-distance rail service heading to the north originate from Estación Retiro (Retiro train terminal), also a major long-distance bus terminal (Terminal de Ómnibus) is located adjacent to the station, subte line C of the Buenos Aires Metro system and numerous local public bus services, this area is always teeming with commuters and traffic on weekdays.[9]
The Retiro section of Calle Florida was the site of Harrods Buenos Aires, originally the London department store's only overseas affiliate, from 1914 to 1998; the abandoned landmark continued to host art shows and Tango festivals, and permits were obtained in 2009 to reopen the retailer.[10] Another Retiro landmark spared demolition was the Ortiz Basualdo Palace. Completed in 1912 as a private residence, it was acquired by the French Government for use as its Embassy in Argentina in 1939. When entire blocks of housing were razed to make way for an extension of the Avenida 9 de Julio in the late 1970s, the embassy was spared due to its landmark status, and remains the lone building in the midst of intense traffic.[11] The neighboring Pereda Palace, built in 1920, serves as the official residence of the Ambassador of Brazil.[12]
Across the street opposite Retiro train terminal is the leafy Plaza San Martín, surrounded by great palaces and hotels. The Retiro lowlands were once the training grounds for General José de San Martín's Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers, and the modern-day Plaza San Martín features an equestrian monument to the hero of the Argentine War of Independence, as well as a memorial to the dead in the Malvinas War.[9]
The most significant landmark opposite the plaza is the Kavanagh Building, a reinforced concrete structure finished in 1936 which was, at the time, the tallest building in Latin America at 120 metres (394ft). Funded by an Irish Argentine woman, the Kavanagh stands on the northern end of pedestrian Calle Florida,[13] and its construction followed the plaza's extensive redesign, which resulted in the demolition of a number of derelict buildings from the colonial era, though also of the original National Museum of Fine Arts, an ornate pavilion used for the 1889 Paris Exposition. Other architecturally significant landmarks facing the plaza include the Paz Palace, the San Martín Palace, and the Olivetti and Pirelli skyscrapers, which were among the first in the city built in the International Style.
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