Casa Rosada – or the Pink House, is the seat of the government of Argentina, and the location of the presidential office. Casa Rosada was constructed in the same spot where a Spanish colonial fort used to stand. After Argentina won its independence, the fort was converted into a customs office by British architect Edward Taylor. In 1713, the building was further strengthened with a tougher frame, defensive towers, a watchtower, a drawbridge and a defensive moat. When the building’s strengthening process was completed in 1720, it was renamed “Castillo de San Miguel”. In 1820, the then-president Bernardino Rivadavia altered the fortress and swapped the drawbridge with a Neoclassical portico, and a part of the building became a Royal Treasury.
In 1862, President Bartolomé Mitre chose the building to be the seat of his government. The following president, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento expanded the complex, and it is thought that he ordered for the building to be painted pink in an attempt to difuse the political tension in the country by merging the colors of the opposing political parties in the country. Namely, red was the color of the Federalists, while the Unitarians used white. The central archway was designed by Italian architect Francisco Tamburini.
A scene from the history of Buenos Aires is surely Juan and Evita Perón’s public speeches held from the balcony of Casa Rosada, which took place in the 1940s and 50s.
Today, the Casa Rosada is a building complex developed on three levels in the Balcarde street, and on four levels with an additional basement/gallery in the Paseo Colón Avenue, where it almost takes up an entire block. All of the original rooms located along the three outer walls have direct ventilation and lighting, while the original rooms located in the very center of the building get ventilation and lighting from the galleries, which resemble balconies. As a result of the long-lasting construction of the Casa Rosada, the complex was only opened in 1898, during the second presidency of Julio Argentino Roca.
