Before being acquired by the Brazilian government, the former mansion belonged to Doctor Celedonio Tomás Pereda and his wife, María Justina Girado. Pereda was president of the Argentine Rural Society (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
Pereda purchased the property in 1908. It was part of the lands of General Benjamín Victorica’s estate. In 1916 he decided to build with the technique of pastiche, used to imitate existing buildings (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
In 1920, Pereda and his wife decided to entrust the work to the French architect Louis Martin. The request was that it resemble the Jacquemart Andrè museum in Paris as much as possible. However, Pereda felt that one of the staircases designed by the Frenchman did not resemble those in the museum, so he decided to do without his services a year after the start of work. To replace him, he hired the Belgian Julio Dormal, who was finishing the work of the Teatro Colón (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
Construction of the Palace ended in 1936, and he was in charge of Dormal’s followers, since the Belgian died in 1924. Dormal was one of the star architects of the time, so his death had an impact on the Pereda family (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
All the furniture in the Palace is European, original from the period. When Brazil acquired the house, they kept all the furniture (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
Pereda traveled to Europe in 1924 to find an artist to decorate his house. There he met the Catalan artist José María Sert, who boasted of choosing his clients. The painter has never been to Buenos Aires. He works on a model and sends his works by boat (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
The ceilings are decorated with works by Sert, very famous at the time. The painter only agreed to work for wealthy families (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
The ceilings of the Palace had only one restoration intervention, at the end of the 80s. The sculptor Domingo Tellechea, specialist in the restorations of José María Sert, was in charge of carrying out the works (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
The dining room can accommodate a maximum of 17 people. Unlike other palaces, all the rooms in the house are used daily (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
The palace clocks are original and still work. Brazil does not lose sight of any detail of its Palace and strives to preserve the majesty of the time (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
The house has nine guest suites and is capable of accommodating a full presidential delegation. The ambassador and his family live on the second floor (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
At that time, wealthy families sought to show power with their buildings and impress their guests (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
Pereda never came to see how his house stood, as he had a vision problem and ended up going blind (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
Palazzo Pereda reflects like few others the important influence of French architecture on the physiognomy of 20th century Buenos Aires (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
The Palace has an impressive chapel, something unusual in townhouses. The Peredas were a family of religious tradition (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
Jorge Bergoglio, when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, was part of the diplomatic corps of the Vatican and very often frequented the chapel. He loved it very much and whenever he had the opportunity he praised it in front of Brazilian diplomats (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
The infantry and cavalry armor is located in the corridor that connects the library to the chapel (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
Former President of Brazil Getulio Vargas marveled at the house during a visit to Buenos Aires. When word reached him in 1941 that the Pereda family intended to sell it, he began instructing the Brazilian ambassador to Argentina to begin the acquisition. They reach a sales agreement for 4,000 tons of iron bars that have been deposited in the port of Rio de Janeiro duty free. Also included is the transfer of the building that Brazil then used as an embassy, located in Callao and Las Heras (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
In 1945, Brazil took possession of the house with all its contents. Since then, the government has always been interested in the maintenance of the Palace, considered a sacred heritage (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
In April 2022, the Brazilian Embassy in Buenos Aires inaugurated the “Redig de Campos/Bulcão” exhibition. The initiative, held in the month of the anniversary of Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, recalls the architect Olavo Redig de Campos (1906-1984), author of the construction project, and Athos Bulcão (1918-2008 ), artist with two works exhibited in the ground floor reception (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
Visitors were able to enter the building and discover new angles of the construction inaugurated in 1989, in addition to observing a fresco in tiles with the colors of the Brazilian flag and a relief on a granite wall (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
Tiradentes was a Brazilian dentist, soldier, miner, merchant and political activist, considered a hero of his country for leading the mining conspiracy, considered Brazil’s first large-scale attempt at independence from Portugal, at the end of the 18th century. (Picture Gustavo Gavotti)
View of the Brazilian Embassy (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), located at Cerrito 1350. The building is connected underground to the residence (Photo Gustavo Gavotti)
Photo 1: Celedonio Pereda with his daughter-in-law Sara Benedit Photo 2: María Justina Girado Photo 3: Celedonio Tomás Pereda
An old photo of the Pereda Palace which, more than a hundred years after the start of construction, continues to shine on the scene of Buenos Aires (fotos.antiguas.ba)
Special thanks to Pedro Ivo Souto Dubra Already Jorge Fernandez Cruz from the Brazilian Embassy.
Continue reading:
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