Plaza Francia (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

: "France Square") is a public square 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, usually delimited by functional (e.g. residenti ...

'' of Recoleta in

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. The nearby

Plaza Intendente Alvear Plaza Intendente Alvear is a public space in Recoleta, Buenos Aires. It is commonly but mistakenly known as Plaza Francia, as the actual Plaza Francia is located at its side. It faces the Recoleta Cemetery and the cultural center. History The pl ...

is commonly but mistakenly known by the same name. It was created by a Municipal Ordinance on October 19, 1909, as part of the changes introduced in the urban landscape on the occasion of the

Argentina Centennial The Argentina Centennial was celebrated on May 25, 1910. It was the 100th anniversary of the May Revolution, when viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros was ousted from office and replaced with the Primera Junta, the first national government. Co ...

. Designed by French

landscape architecture Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental, social-behavioural, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic design and general engineering of various structures for constructio ...

Carlos Thays Carlos Thays (August 20, 1849 – January 31, 1934)Biog ...

, it is part of a broad set of squares including Plaza Intendente Alvear, Plaza San Martín de Tours, Plaza Juan XXIII, Plaza Ramón J. Cárcano, Plaza Dante and Plaza Rubén Darío, among others. The square is dominated by

Émile Peynot Émile Edmond Jean Peynot (November 22, 1850 – December 12, 1932) was a prominent French artist sculptor and Medalist, medallist. Bio Peynot was born in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, Burgundy. He became well known following his Grand Prize at the P ...

's Monument of France to Argentina, inaugurated in 1910 and gifted by the French community on the occasion of the Centennial. Its four

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

s in

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

evoke central facts of the history of both countries: the

Primera Junta The Primera Junta ( en, First Junta) or ''Junta Provisional Gubernativa de las Provincias del Río de la Plata'' (''Provisional Governing Junta of the Provinces of the Río de la Plata''), is the most common name given to the first government of ...

and the

Crossing of the Andes The Crossing of the Andes ( es, Cruce de los Andes) was one of the most important feats in the Argentine and Chilean wars of independence, in which a combined army of Argentine soldiers and Chilean exiles invaded Chile crossing the Andes r ...

for Argentina, and the

Storming of the Bastille The Storming of the Bastille (french: Prise de la Bastille ) occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, when revolutionary insurgents stormed and seized control of the medieval armoury, fortress, and political prison known as the Bastille. At t ...

and

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (french: Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de 1789, links=no), set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from the French Revolu ...

for France. The two female figures that crown the monument symbolize Argentina and France, guided by an angel that personifies Glory. The monument also features plaques that commemorate personalities of French origin:

grenadier A grenadier ( , ; derived from the word '' grenade'') was originally a specialist soldier who threw hand grenades in battle. The distinct combat function of the grenadier was established in the mid-17th century, when grenadiers were recruited fr ...

Domingo Porteau, who died during the

Battle of San Lorenzo The Battle of San Lorenzo was fought on 3 February 1813 in San Lorenzo, Argentina, then part of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata. The royalist troops, were composed of militiamen recruited in Montevideo under the command of mil ...

in the

Argentine War of Independence The Argentine War of Independence ( es, Guerra de Independencia de Argentina, links=no) was a secessionist civil war fought from 1810 to 1818 by Argentine patriotic forces under Manuel Belgrano, Juan José Castelli and José de San Martín a ...

, and writer

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...

. A monument to

Louis Braille Louis Braille (; ; 4 January 1809 – 6 January 1852) was a French educator and the inventor of a reading and writing system, named braille after him, intended for use by visually impaired people. His system is used worldwide and remains virtua ...

within Plaza Francia was inaugurated in 1977.

Gallery

Image:Buenos Aires - Recoleta - Plaza Francia en 1914.jpg, Landscape architect

Carlos Thays Carlos Thays (August 20, 1849 – January 31, 1934)Biog ...

—who designed the square—sitting on a bench of Plaza Francia in 1914. Image:Tanguito con hippies en Plaza Francia.jpg,

Tanguito José Alberto Iglesias (September 16, 1944 – May 19, 1972), better known as Tango or its diminutive Tanguito or Ramses VII, was an Argentine rock singer-songwriter. Born into a working-class family from western Greater Buenos Aires, he began hi ...

—accompanied by

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

s—playing the guitar in Plaza Francia, a popular meeting place for the ''porteño''

counterculture of the 1960s The counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon that developed throughout much of the Western world in the 1960s and has been ongoing to the present day. The aggregate movement gained momentum as the civil rights mo ...

. Image:Francia a la Argentina Emile Peynot 05.JPG, View of the Monument of France to Argentina, sculpted by

and gifted by the French community. Image:Buenos Aires - Recoleta - Francia a la Argentina 4.JPG, Detail of the Monument of France to Argentina, featuring

national personification A national personification is an anthropomorphic personification of a state or the people(s) it inhabits. It may appear in political cartoons and propaganda. Some early personifications in the Western world tended to be national manifestations ...

s of the two countries holding hands. Image:Gallo Francia símbolo.jpg, Detail of a lamppost in the square, featuring the

Gallic rooster The Gallic rooster (french: le coq gaulois) is a national symbol of France as a nation, as opposed to Marianne representing France as a state and its values: the Republic. The rooster is also the symbol of the Wallonia region and the French Commu ...

national symbol A national symbol is a symbol of any entity considering and manifesting itself to the world as a national community: the sovereign states but also nations and countries in a state of colonial or other dependence, federal integration, or even an ...

of France.

References

External links

{{BuenosAires-geo-stub Squares in Buenos Aires