Palermo Neighborhood

It is this one of the most tourist neighborhoods in the city, besides one of the biggest, concentrating a great variety of attractions, the coastal one, the race track, the parks, a group of green spaces designed at the beginning of century, among those that the Rosedal stands out, the Planetarium, center of exhibitions of astronomical topics, the traditional Rural Society that at the moment transformed its place in a center for events of all type, the Zoological of the city and the Botanical Garden that has near 7000 species vegetable, and numerous shoppings. Besides the Forests it has other green spaces as the Plaza Las Heras, in the place where formerly it works a jail, and the Plaza Cortázar, call popularly Plaza Serrano, in Old Palermo that although small, it concentrates on its proximities bars and pubs, being an important place for night entertainment. As this city grew giving the back to the river, the access to the Coastal, recently beautified, is not carried out directly from the urban space, but rather the group of parks should be crossed and to surround the city airport. Equally is recommended to arrive until there. This neighborhood is crossed by diverse avenues, Santa Fe, Libertador, Figueroa Alcorta, all which unite the center with the north area of the city and some continue many kilometers in the Great Buenos Aires, the avenue Las Heras arises in the Plaza Italia, important center for the transport, and it runs toward the center in some itineraries in diagonal with the layout of the city. They stand out several monuments of the many in this neighborhood, as that of Garibaldi, in Plaza Italia, that of the Spaniards, that of Urquiza and the one dedicated to Sarmiento, carried out by the french sculptor Rodin. In this neighborhood the population of resources concentrates, from middle class to high class. These last ones concentrate on the exclusive Small Palermo , near Recoleta. There is great concentration of buildings, many new, among that those that stands out the highest in South America, of recent construction. In the called area Old Palermo, near to Villa Crespo and Colegiales, there are more low constructions, some of beginnings of the XX Century. The neighborhood has a wide history, with an origin classified as of slum, marginal, in its old area, beside the Stream Maldonado that before crossed the city and that today runs tubed below the avenue Juan B. Justo. It contains several buildings of interest like embassies, that of the Automobile Argentinean Club (ACA) and the Palace Errázuriz that originally was the Chilean ambassador's residence and today works like National Museum of Ornamental Art.

History

The origin of the neighborhood goes back at the beginnings of the century of 1600, when Juan Domínguez Palermo buys a great quantity of lands in the area, at low cost to be marshy, and it commences to cultivate vineyards and to raise livestocks, For its lands ran a road that drove toward the north. The area continued being developed during the following centuries like area of vegetable gardens, in the decade of 1830 Juan Manuel de Rosas, the governor from Buenos Aires, and more important character of the country during those years commences to acquire lands, ending up almost possessing 550 hectares, in which he cleans up the swamps and it builds his big house, call San Benito, in the current avenues Sarmiento and Libertador, years later, when the régime of Rosas falls, it will be sent to demolish, disappearing of the history until recent times, when they were commenced to carry out excavations and they were given to the light the foundations. At the end of XIX century the suburb was developed, in the adjacent lands to the stream Maldonado where frequently the marginal sectors were located as malevos housings and prostitution houses, like it is depicted in several stories of Borges. By the middle of the XX century, Plaza Italia was a center where people of the interior usually joined.