Parque Lezama

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Gazebo and Sculpture Avenue

The Lezama Park is a public park in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires . It is located in the San Telmo district .

overview

Historians believe the gorge in the eastern part of the park may have been the place where Pedro de Mendoza first disembarked in Buenos Aires in 1536. In 1790, the area of ​​today's park, located south of the then still small settlement of Buenos Aires, was bought by Manuel Gallego y Valcárcel and was later sold on several times. Charles Ridgley Horne finally built a baroque mansion on the western corner (today: Calle Defensa) . When Juan Manuel de Rosas was deposed, Ridgley Horne went into exile as his former ally and the land was sold to José Gregorio Lezama, who added parcels in the north and thus gave the current park its current dimensions.

Lezama beautified both the house and the property, planting rows of Tipuana and Jacaranda trees before these tree species became almost typical of Buenos Aires. After his death in 1894, Lezama's widow sold the eight hectare property to the city with the proviso that it was turned into a park to commemorate her deceased husband. The villa on Calle Defensa was converted into the National Historical Museum in 1897 and the garden was redesigned in 1904 by the landscape architect Carlos Thays with gates, a rose garden, a pavilion, a sculpture garden and an esplanade . The area surrounding the park was enhanced in 1901 with the inauguration of the Russian Orthodox Church in Buenos Aires and the construction of several buildings in the style of the Second Empire .

In the 1930s the fence was removed and several monuments were erected, including the Monumento a Pedro Mendoza . In the past few decades the park has increasingly shown signs of age, also caused by the theft of decorative urns and bronze sculptures. The mayor Mauricio Macri initiated renovation work on the park in 2008. The measures that should be completed by the end of 2009 include a new fence based on the old one and a sundial.

Web links

Commons : Parque Lezama  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 34 ° 37 ′ 36 ″  S , 58 ° 22 ′ 10 ″  W