I spent today downtown, trying to buy all of the stuff that I´m going to need during my upcoming roadtrip (details are forthcoming, I promise!). Since I was already in the area, I went over to the Casa Rosada and the Plaza de Mayo.
The Casa Rosada is the presidential palace, although, unlike the White House, the President of Argentina also resides in Olivios when he isn´t working at the Casa Rosada. Constructed in 1873, the pink color of the Casa Rosada is said to be due to either Domingo Faustino Sarmiento´s desire to demonstrate unity between the two political parties of the time, the Unitarists (white) and the Federalists (red), or it is due to the use of cow´s blood in the original paint job to protect against damage from humidity.
At any rate, the Casa Rosada used to be light pink, but it is currently being restored and is now more of a manly, um, pink:
The former color can be seen in the upper right hand corner of the picture, above the roof. The balcony in the center is where Evita, Madonna, etc did their thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment