Buenos Aires - Avenida Alvear - 20090104-g

The Fernández Anchorena Palace is an architecturally significant former residence in the Recoleta section of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. Today, it serves as the Apostolic Nunciature in Argentina.

Overview

The mansion was commissioned by Juan Antonio Fernández and his wife, Rosa de Anchorena, to Eduardo Le Monnier (18731931), a

French Argentine French Argentines (french: Franco-Argentins; es, franco-argentinos) refers to Argentine citizens of full or partial French ancestry or persons born in France who reside in Argentina. French Argentines form one of the largest ancestry groups af ...

architect. Designed in 1907 in the

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

style favored among Argentine high society at the time, the palace was completed in 1909, though the couple never inhabited the Alvear Avenue landmark.Wilson, Jason. ''Cultural Guide to the City of Buenos Aires''. Oxford, England: Signal Books, 1999. The family made the mansion available for social occasions and public ceremonies in subsequent years; from 1922 to 1928, most notably, it served as the official residence to the President of Argentina,

Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear Máximo Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear Pacheco (4 October 1868 – 23 March 1942), was an Argentine lawyer and politician, who served as president of Argentina between from 1922 to 1928. His period of government coincided precisely with the en ...

, and his wife, the opera chanteuse Regina Pacini de Alvear. The mansion was sold to Adelia María Harilaos de Olmos, the widow of prominent Córdoba Province landowner Ambrosio Harilaos de Olmos, in 1940. The founder of the Catholic Ladies' League and financier of a working women's assistance fund, a number of churches and a hospital pavilion bequeathed the residence to the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...

, in 1947. Upon her death in 1949, it became the Apostolic Nunciature in Argentina; the Pope at the time,

Pius XII Pius ( , ) Latin for "pious", is a masculine given name. Its feminine form is Pia. It may refer to: People Popes * Pope Pius (disambiguation) * Antipope Pius XIII (1918-2009), who led the breakaway True Catholic Church sect Given name * Pius B ...

, had been a guest of hers (as Cardinal Pacelli) for his stay in Buenos Aires on occasion of the Eucharistic Congress held in 1934.Cruzade del Rosario: Sra. Harilaos de Olmos

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez Anchorena Palace Palaces in Buenos Aires Diplomatic missions in Buenos Aires Houses completed in 1909 Neoclassical architecture in Argentina Neoclassical palaces