The Argentine National Congress Buenos Aires is the administrative palace for the country’s bicameral government, 72-seat senate and 257-seat chamber of deputies.
Location immediately surrounding the palace contains many of the city’s most significant works of art and monuments.
National congress building, together with the adjoining Congressional Plaza square, is located at the western end of the Avenida de Mayo.
On the opposing end of the street, you can find the country’s other administrative palace, the presidential palace Casa Rosada.
Photo: Argentine National Congress Palace as seen from the Avenida Rivadavia.
Photo: Part of the portico section of the Congress Palace. The quadriga-artwork on top of the portico section is by Venetian-born sculptor Victor de Pol.
Photo: A closeup of the iron gates in front of the Congreso Nacional palace’s main entrance, whose round artwork contains coat of arms for all of the 23 Argentinian provinces and of the autonomic administrative area of Buenos Aires.
Photo: Part of the palace’s portico’s antiquity inspired facade, with classic Greek style female shapes surrounding the main entrance and columns done in classic Corinthian architecture.
Photo: Winged Chimera statues with lion bodies on the top of the palace stairs, which are artworks by a local sculptor, Lola Mora. Bronze works by Mora are also available at the palace’s interiors.
Photo: The administrative palace as seen from the Plaza Mariono section of the park in front of the building. In front of the picture, you can see Auguste Rodin”s “The Thinker” statue, the third copy of the original (which can be seen at the Rodin museum in Paris) out of the total of about 20 copies made by Rodin himself.
Photo: Directly in front of the Congreso Nacional building is the Plaza del Congreso square, with a highlight of Monumento de los Dos Congresos by the Belgian sculptor Jules Lagae, from 1914. The name of the artwork is a reference to the country’s two initial congresses that started the autonomous rule of the country, the 1813 national assembly and the 1816 congress of Tucumán, which announced Argentina’s independence.
Photo: An overview of the Monumento de los Dos Congresos, and the Neptune fountain that is part of the monument.
Photo: Monumento de los Dos Congresos, which has been primarily made out of stone material imported from the French city of Nancy, is best known for the central bronze artwork, the “La República” sculpture, symbolizing Argentina.
Photo: Closeup of the monument’s Neptune fountain, which has been made inspired by the Apollo fountain within the gardens of Versailles palace, in Paris.
The Congreso Nacional building was designed by Italian architect Vittorio Meano, with the construction work taking place a period from 1898 to 1906. Other works by Meano in the city include “Teatro Colón”, which he designed in co-operation with Francesco Tamburini.
In terms of the details, such as finishing the statues, work with the Argentine National Congress Buenos Aires building continued up until 1946, and within this period of time, the palace got, among other things, the quadriga sculpture artwork by Victor de Pol and sculptor Lola Mora’s allegorical bronze statues, both to the facade as well as to the interiors.
The 3 hectare Plaza del Congreso square was designed especially for the National Congress palace by French-Argentinian city architect Charles Thays, and it was completed in 1910.
As for highlights to the square, which today consists of three separate sections (Plaza del Congreso, Plaza Mariano Moreno, as well as Plaza Loreo), the builders purchased in 1907 one of the rare copies of “The Thinker”, by Auguste Rodin.
Later, additional highlights that have been added to the square include the Monumento de los Dos Congresos, as well as monuments to Mariano Moreno (one of the most important politicians during early years of Argentinian independence) and José Manuel Estrada.
Congreso de la Nación Argentina
Av Rivadavia 1864
C1033AAV Buenos Aires
Detailed information about these guided tours to the palace is available from the official (Spanish-language) website for the Congress, available at www.hcdn.gov.ar.