Lezama Park
Lezama Park is a public park in the San Telmo district of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Overview
Historians believe the park's eastern barranca to have been the site of Spanish Conquistador Pedro de Mendoza's landing on what became the first, failed attempt to establish Buenos Aires in 1536. Well to the south of the colonial hamlet, the land was first purchased by Manuel Gallego y Valcárcel around 1790. The lot was later purchased by a succession of English Argentines, the last of whom, Charles Ridgley Horne, improved and expanded the property, raising a baroque mansion on the land's western edge, Defensa Street. Allied to the repressive paramount Governor of Buenos Aires, Juan Manuel de Rosas, Ridgley Horne was forced into exile after the strongman's 1852 overthrow, however, and the land was sold to José Gregorio Lezama, who added adjoining lots to the north and gave the green space its current dimensions.
Lezama commissioned Belgian landscape designer Charles Veerecke to beautify the grounds, planting rows of tipa and jacaranda trees decades before the three species became nearly emblematic of the city at large. Following his 1894 passing, Lezama's widow sold the 8 hectare (20 acre) estate to the city for a token sum, on the condition that the grounds become a park in her late husband's name. The couple's Defensa Street mansion became the Argentine National Museum of History in 1897 and the Municipal Parks Director, the noted French Argentine urbanist Carlos Thays, remodeled the park with gates, a rose garden, a gazebo, a pergola, a sculpture garden and an esplanade in 1904.
The park's surroundings were enhanced by the 1901 inaugural of the Russian Orthodox Church of Buenos Aires and by the addition of a number of buildings in the Second Empire style, notably the one housing the Bar Británico, an English-style Pub still popular among locals. The Canale Biscuit Company factory, a leading neighborhood employer when it opened in 1910, was converted into an arts and commercial complex in 2006.
The 1930s saw the removal of the perimeter gates, as well as the addition of monuments such as the one to Pedro de Mendoza. Lezama Park began to show its age in recent decades, a development dramatized by the theft of a number of the park's many decorative urns and bronzes. Mayor Mauricio Macri announced works to restore the park in 2008. The plan included the reintroduction of perimeter gates modeled on the originals and the addition of a solarium, among other new features. Delays in its implementation, coupled with the growing number of street vendors, continued to blight the park, however.
Images from the park
Facing the park
- Bar Británico Pub (NW of the park)
- The Buenos Aires Russian Orthodox Church (north)
- The Canale Biscuit Company Lofts (south)
External links
- buenosaires.gov (in Spanish)
- Pagina/12: El futuro del Parque Lezama está en su historia (in Spanish)
34°37′36″S 58°22′10″W / 34.62667°S 58.36944°W / -34.62667; -58.36944
- v
- t
- e
historic buildings
and structures
- Cabildo
- Casa Rosada
- Chacarita Cemetery
- City Hall
- City Legislature
- Confitería del Molino
- Congress Palace
- Customs House
- CCK
- Duhau Palace
- Estrugamou Building
- Floralis Genérica
- Galerías Pacífico
- Immigrants' Hotel
- Kavanagh Building
- Libertador Building
- May Pyramid
- Metropolitan Cathedral
- Ministry of Public Works Building
- Monument to Giuseppe Garibaldi
- Obelisco
- Palacio de Aguas Corrientes
- Palacio Barolo
- Palacio Haedo
- Pizzurno Palace
- Plaza Hotel
- Recoleta Cemetery
- San Martín Palace
- Santo Domingo convent
- Sarmiento Frigate
- Torre Monumental
- Uruguay Corvette
- Women's Bridge
neighbourhoods
- Avellaneda Park
- Botanical Gardens
- Buenos Aires Eco-Park
- Buenos Aires Ecological Reserve
- Chacabuco Park
- Ciudad Universitaria
- Congressional Plaza
- Japanese Gardens
- Lezama Park
- Palermo Gardens
- Parque Centenario
- Parque de la Memoria
- Plaza Canadá
- Plaza Fuerza Aérea Argentina
- Plaza de la República
- Plaza de Mayo
- Plaza Intendente Alvear
- Plaza San Martín
Institutions
- Ateneo Bookshop
- Argentine Automobile Club
- Café Tortoni
- Cine Cosmos
- Foreign Debt Museum
- Fortabat Art Collection
- House of Culture
- Illuminated Block
- Isaac Fernández Blanco Museum
- King Fahd Cultural Center
- Latin American Art Museum
- Modern Art Museum
- Natural Sciences Museum
- National Library
- National Museum of Decorative Arts
- National Museum of Fine Arts
- National Museum of History
- Opera House
- Paz Palace
- Planetarium
- Recoleta Cultural Center
- Rojas Cultural Center
- San Martín Cultural Center
- San Martín National Institute
- Sarmiento Museum
- Eduardo Sívori Museum
- Fundacion Proa
- Argentinos Juniors Stadium
- Boca Juniors Stadium
- CeNARD
- Ferro C. Oeste Stadium
- GEBA Stadium
- Hippodrome of Palermo
- Huracán Stadium
- Lawn Tennis Club
- Luna Park Arena
- Malvinas Argentinas Arena
- Mary Terán de Weiss Tennis Stadium
- Nueva Chicago Stadium
- Obras Sanitarias Arena
- Polo Stadium
- Race Circuit
- River Plate Stadium
- San Lorenzo Stadium
- José Amalfitani Stadium
entertainment
and avenues
- Avenida 9 de Julio
- Avenida Alvear
- Avenida de Mayo
- Avenida del Libertador
- Belgrano Avenue
- Callao Avenue
- Caminito
- Córdoba Avenue
- Coronel Díaz Street
- Corrientes Avenue
- Figueroa Alcorta Avenue
- Florida Street
- General Paz Avenue
- President Julio Argentino Roca Avenue
- Leandro Alem Avenue
- Pueyrredón Avenue
- President Roque Sáenz Peña Avenue
- Rivadavia Avenue
- Santa Fe Avenue
- Sarmiento Avenue
- Scalabrini Ortiz Avenue