Famous Landmarks in Montevideo
A colonial cathedral, a domed parliament and a 1920s eclectic tower mark three eras.
Montevideo's oldest landmark, the Metropolitan Cathedral, stands in the colonial grid of Ciudad Vieja, the peninsula where the Spanish city took shape after 1724. Two later buildings mark the country's push into the twentieth century: the neoclassical Legislative Palace, raised in the Aguada district between 1904 and 1925 for the centenary of independence, and the eclectic Palacio Salvo, a reinforced-concrete skyscraper finished in 1928 at Plaza Independencia in Centro. The three sit a few kilometres apart, tracing growth from a defensive colonial port toward the modern capital that now hosts Mercosur's headquarters. Materials shift with the eras: colonial masonry gives way to the poured concrete that let Palacio Salvo briefly stand as the tallest reinforced-concrete structure anywhere.
Palacio Salvo
1928 · Mario Palanti
A slender, eclectic-style concrete tower of 27 floors and 105 metres, built to a design its architect reused for the very similar Palacio Barolo skyscraper in Buenos Aires.
Palacio Salvo is an eclectic 27-storey skyscraper at the junction of 18 de Julio Avenue and Plaza Independencia, in the Centro district. Built for the businessmen brothers Angel, Jose and Lorenzo Salvo, it was completed in 1928 to a design by the Italian-born architect Mario Palanti, who used the same plan for his Palacio Barolo in Buenos Aires. At 105 metres over 27 floors it was briefly the tallest building in Latin America and, on completion, the tallest reinforced-concrete structure in the world. It has been a National Historical Monument since 1996.
- On completion in 1928 it was, for a time, the tallest reinforced-concrete structure in the world.
- Its architect, Mario Palanti, built an almost identical skyscraper, Palacio Barolo, in Buenos Aires.
Photo: Coolcaesar (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Legislative Palace of Uruguay
1904–1925 · Vittorio Meano
A single large neoclassical block in the Aguada district, monumental in scale, built as the seat of Uruguay's General Assembly and still in that use today.
The Legislative Palace is the seat of Uruguay's General Assembly, in the Aguada neighbourhood of Montevideo. Its neoclassical design is credited to Vittorio Meano, who died in 1904, the year ground was broken; Giannino Castiglioni is also credited among its architects. Construction ran two decades, and the building was inaugurated on 25 August 1925 to mark the centenary of the Declaration of Independence. It was declared a National Historic Monument in 1975, under the government of President Juan Maria Bordaberry.
- One of its two credited architects, Vittorio Meano, died in 1904, the very year construction began.
- It was declared a National Historic Monument in 1975, during Juan Maria Bordaberry's presidency.
Photo: Coolcaesar (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Montevideo Metropolitan Cathedral
1804
A neoclassical facade fronting Constitution Square in Ciudad Vieja, standing directly opposite the colonial Cabildo building in the city's oldest quarter.
The Montevideo Metropolitan Cathedral is the main Roman Catholic church of the city and seat of its archdiocese. It stands in Ciudad Vieja, the colonial-era quarter, directly across Constitution Square from the Cabildo. Built in the neoclassical style, the standing cathedral was completed in 1804. It continues to serve as the city's principal cathedral and is listed as a Cultural Heritage Monument.
Photo: Nicolas Barriola (CC BY-SA 3.0)
History
A Portuguese garrison first held the site from November 1723, part of a wider Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the Rio de la Plata region; a Spanish force under Bruno Mauricio de Zabala expelled it in February 1724, and the city's founding is dated from Zabala's diary entry of 24 December 1726. Full separation from Buenos Aires as an independent city followed on 1 January 1730, and a brief British occupation in 1807 ended when Spanish criollo forces retook it during the British invasions of the River Plate. The Metropolitan Cathedral, completed in 1804, still fronts the old colonial square in Ciudad Vieja. A century later, independent Uruguay marked the Declaration of Independence's centenary with the Legislative Palace, built between 1904 and 1925, and the boom years that followed produced the Palacio Salvo, a 1928 concrete skyscraper that was for a time the tallest reinforced-concrete building anywhere.