Quinta de Olivos

Quinta presidencial de Olivos
Quinta presidencial de Olivos
	Neogothic and Baroque)
Town or city	Olivos, Buenos Aires
Country	Argentina
Coordinates	34°30′54″S 58°28′59″W / 34.51500°S 58.48306°W
Construction started	1854
Client	Miguel de Azcuénaga
Technical details
Size	32 hectares (79 acres) (estate)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Prilidiano Pueyrredón
National Historic Monument of Argentina

The Quinta presidencial de Olivos, also known as Quinta de Olivos, is an architectural landmark in the north side Buenos Aires suburb of Olivos and the official residence of the president of Argentina. It is one of the president's official residences.

Overview

Development

Shortly after the second foundation of Buenos Aires by Captain Juan de Garay in 1580 (the first one was in 1536 by Pedro de Mendoza), among the first 400 land lots apportioned was that of a 180-hectare (440-acre) parcel 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the city. The land, situated on a bluff overlooking the Río de la Plata, was awarded to Rodrigo de Ibarola, a lieutenant of Garay's.

A prime section of the property was purchased in 1774 by Manuel de Basavilbaso, the postmaster general of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. His daughter, Justa Rufina, married Miguel de Azcuénaga, a military officer who would later take part in the May Revolution of 1810 (prologue to the Argentine War of Independence). He also established one of the area's first apiaries on the grounds.^[1]

Azcuénaga inherited the land on the death of his wife in 1829, and their son, Miguel José, in turn inherited it in 1833. He converted the property into an equestrian estate, though the rise of

École Polytechnique, Prilidiano Pueyrredón, to design a manor house

.

Pueyrredón created an eclectic design centered on

Neogothic and Baroque architecture, and upon its completion in 1854, Azcuénaga came to refer to the mansion as his "birdcage";^[1] Pueyrredón was also a renowned painter, and created a portrait of his friend and client shortly after the mansion's completion.^[2]

Azcuénaga landscaped the sprawling property with a selection of

tipas and pines planted, as well as a row of plane trees

(which graced his favorite path).

Azcuénaga, who had no legitimate offspring, bequeathed the property to his nephew, Antonio Justo Olaguer Feliú. The blind Olaguer, who had no use for the view of the waterfront, sold the easternmost portion of the land before his death in 1903 and bequeathed it to his nephew, Carlos Villate Olaguer. Villate stipulated on his receiving the property that, upon his death, it should be deeded to the

Argentine Government for the purpose of its use as the Official Summer Residence of the President of Argentina.^[3]

Bequeathal to State

Villate's death in 1913 made the 35-hectare (86-acre) property available to the government, though its conversion into a public park was considered for a number of years (it had been customary for Argentine Presidents to reside in their own home). President Hipólito Yrigoyen ultimately accepted the deed on September 30, 1918, though he designated it as the Residence of the Minister of Foreign Relations, rather than putting it to presidential use, and its first official occupant was Foreign Minister Honorio Pueyrredón. A coup in 1930 and the installation of General José Félix Uriburu gave the estate its first use as a presidential residence when the infirm dictator opted for the spot's breeze and tranquility during a 1931 heat wave.^[1]

Uriburu's successor,

Franklin Roosevelt, remarked during his drive at seeing the falling blooms that "it's raining blue!" ^[4]

Presidential Residence

The estate's use as a year-round residence triggered a lawsuit in 1940 by Villate's heirs, alleging that it violated the terms of the will. The suit was struck down by the

Argentine Supreme Court, however. Its relatively distant location from the downtown Buenos Aires presidential offices at the Casa Rosada made it of only occasional use in subsequent years. President Juan Perón installed a screening room, and had the grounds embellished with an amphitheatre, tennis courts, reflecting pool, greenhouse, Ceiba speciosa trees, and other additions, though he later attracted controversy following the 1952 death of his wife, Evita, when he also converted former polo horse stables on the grounds into installations for the "Union of Secondary School Students" (UES) - a group of athletic, adolescent girls - to which the widower provided discreet access via a tunnel built in 1953 (not unlike "Harding's Tunnel").^[5]

The scandal helped precipitate Perón's overthrow in 1955, and General

US-Cuba conflict that, once discovered, helped result in his own overthrow in 1962.^[4] The site of frequent asados and other social gatherings, a concert organized by President Juan Carlos Onganía in 1969 led to a fire that caused the historic residence extensive damage, though it retained most of its original structure.^[1]

The quinta was the site of Juan Perón's death on July 1, 1974. Perón, who had returned from exile following

Recoleta cemeteries, respectively).^[4]

The compound's opulence prompted a number of Argentine presidents over the years to forgo residing there, notably Dr.

Héctor Cámpora, General Leopoldo Galtieri (who preferred officers' quarters at the Campo de Mayo Army Base), and Eduardo Duhalde (who took office during a historic crisis in 2002).^[1]^[4]

Later additions include a

1994 reform of the Argentine Constitution, which provided for the president's right to seek re-election, as well as for the popular election of the mayor of Buenos Aires, hitherto a presidentially-appointed post.^[4]