Becket, December 17, 2012
At the beginning of the 18th century Buenos
Aires--originally named after the virgin of the "Fair Winds" venerated by sailors--was little more than a backwater of the Spanish colonies
in the American continent. Established as a defensive outpost against Portuguese advances, its main
economic engine was large scale contraband.
The arrival of the first Viceroy of the Río de la Plata was still more
than half a century away.
A 1713 map shows the grid of square blocks
established by the founder of the city, Juan de Garay, in 1580. It's located along the coast of
the Río de la Plata and centered between two creeks, the Zanjón de Granados to
the south (left of the map) and the Zanjón de Matorras to the north. The plan displays a remarkably simple
but powerful allocation of property: private within the blocks and
public outside the lines. Garay
had reserved a block at the center of the river's edge for the fort, and an
adjacent one inland for the main square.
Yes, I know, the fort appears to be much larger and the
square (indicated with the letter "A") takes at least four blocks... well, that's the beauty of maps.
Interestingly enough, drawing the square two blocks in width allows our
mapmaker to place a street at the very center of the city, as if prefiguring the
Avenida de Mayo that would be opened exactly in that position towards the end of
the 19th century (at the time, the main road entering the city--the "Camino Real," current Avenida Rivadavia--was aligned with the northern edge of the main square.)
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