The Institute of Hygiene () is a building located at the

Paseo Colón 9 December Avenue (), commonly known as Paseo Colón, is an avenue in the historic centre of Lima, Peru. The street is named after the statue of Christopher Columbus located in the avenue. History The place where the Paseo Colón extends today c ...

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. Located next to the Park of the Exhibition, its design was inspired by the pavilion built by Peru for the 1900 Paris Exhibition, and currently houses the Centre for Military Historical Studies (, CEHMP).

History

The building is based on the pavilion designed by Ferdinand Gaillard on the orders of Eduardo López de la Romaña for the 1900 Paris Exhibition, which was disassembled after the event concluded and shipped back to Peru. The transport efforts were supervised by then diplomat

Pedro Paulet Pedro Eleodoro Paulet Mostajo (2 July 1874 or 4 July 1875 – 30 January 1945) was a Peruvian diplomat and engineer. Some early rocket experts described him as a pioneer in aeronautics, saying that he was the first person to build a liquid-propel ...

, and the fact that the pieces were returned to Peru has led to the popular belief that the building was reassembled in

, although this is not the case, as they were first abandoned at the

. In 1903, the

Metropolitan Municipality of Lima The Metropolitan Municipality of Lima () is the local government entity of the Lima Province and Lima District Lima (), also known as the ''Cercado de Lima'', is a Districts of Peru, district of the Lima Province, eponymous province of Lima ...

decided on the construction of a building to house the Institute of Hygiene at the city's Parque Colón, which already housed its chemical and bacteriological laboratories, in order to unify them into a single space. As the disassembled building arrived from

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, the project was modified to adapt to the gifted materials and reproduce the original building's structure as best as possible, as the new building was two-thirds larger than the former pavilion. Additionally, most of the iron had been exposed to the seaside weather of

Callao Callao () is a Peruvian seaside city and Regions of Peru, region on the Pacific Ocean in the Lima metropolitan area. Callao is Peru's chief seaport and home to its main airport, Jorge Chávez International Airport. Callao municipality consists ...

, and had thus corroded. The building was inaugurated on the same year of its construction, and subsequently functioned as a police station from the 1930s to 1940s. In 1949, it served as the 30th Traffic Command and in 1962, it was ceded to the Centre for Military Historical Studies. The centre's collection includes items of the

history of Peru The history of Peru spans 15 millennia, extending back through several stages of cultural development along the country's desert coastline and in the Andes mountains. Peru's coast was home to the Norte Chico civilization, the oldest civilization ...

after independence.

References

{{coord, -12.0594, -77.0371, type:landmark_region:PE, display=title Exposition Universelle (1900) Palaces in Peru 1903 architecture Buildings and structures in Lima 1903 establishments in Peru

History

See also

References