2023-06-30 22:50:00
In the midst of the renovation of the historic center of the city of Buenos Aires, which has been in the works for 26 months and an investment of three and a half million dollars, they came across a surprising discovery. In one of the courtyards of the Manzana de las Luces, where the floor was being replaced to open a perimeter grate for rainwater drainage, they appeared sanitary constructions of the 18th and 19th century that were hidden, remains of crockery and other objects of great value.
The treasures that Buenos Aires hides in its subsoil
The “Apple of Lights” has a name that arose as a result of housing the most lucid institutions of the time, and is one of the treasures of the city. Now he returned to attract the looks of his own and strangers.
This 400-year-old building and neighbor of the Cabildo was “with its bones in sight” as a result of the historical renovation stage to which it was subjected. When in one of its patios, located 200 meters from Plaza de Mayo, history once once more surprised the present. That rectangle of tiles and seats captured the eyes of archaeologists and, from today, it will become part of a new attraction within this cultural space.
Under this ceramic floor, sanitary constructions from the 18th and 19th centuries appeared. This momentous archaeological discovery was accompanied by ceramics, some cracked and others in optimal conditions as well as different objects of the time.
That block located between Alsina, Moreno, Bolívar and Perú streets, which used to house institutions such as the Foundling Press, the Academy of Medicine and the National Library and, as if that were not enough, the University of Buenos Aires – worked there for 150 years -, is once once more in the spotlight.
As anticipated by the team of archaeologists and anthropologists from the Ministry of Culture of the Nation, this finding will be opened to the public within a month, when they finish the tasks of classifying the objects such as fragments of plates and vessels, some of local production and others from of Europe.
The reconditioning and restoration works were being carried out with complete normality when, when lifting the floor to change it and placing a storm drain grate, underground structures of the sewage system were found in impeccable condition: a cistern with a lead pipe for the ventilation, a cesspool and a fifteen-meter-deep vault where the water went when the University operated there, installed in the building in 1821.
History and gastronomy in the Manzana de las Luces
second surprise
During the work they were carrying out in the Manzana de las Luces in July 2022, masons found archaeological remains. On that occasion, the discovery occurred in a sector of rental houses from the colonial era of that historic Buenos Aires building.
In that discovery they found a complex drainage system that allowed the water to run off, and a cistern that, according to what they revealed, was around four centuries old.
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