galeria pacifico

 

One of the beautiful architectural buildings (Beaux Arts)  in Capital is the Galeria Pacifico. It is modeled after Le Bon Marche in Paris, the first ever department store in the world. At that time it was called Argentine Bon Marche. Clever!

Later the Buenos Aires and Pacific  Railway acquired office space, and because the railway wanted to go from Buenos Aires to the Pacific Ocean in Chile, they changed the name to Edificio Pacifico. Twelve beautiful frescos done by Argentine artists adorn the ceilings and eventually that artwork saved the edifice from demolition when it fell into disrepair.

Brianna and Doug were great at figuring out the symbolism for the paintings, which I had researched. In 1991, as part of the renovations, four new frescos were added. We liked the older ones better, however.

  

The three floor shopping center is beautiful  and there are great architectural features all over the place.

We had a delicious lunch in the Patio de Comidas and then went upstairs to see the art housed in the museum up there. It was not very interesting, except for a cool hanging thing.