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  • The Teatro Colón (Colón Theatre) in Buenos Aires is one of the most important opera houses in the world. Its rich and prestigious history and its exceptional acoustics and architectural features rank it among theatres such as Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Paris Opera House, the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, and the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. The Colón operated in its first venue from 1857 until 1888, after which the building was closed for the construction of a new house. The new improved house opened on May 25th 1908 with a performance of Aïda. In the beginning, the theatre recruited opera companies from other countries, but as of 1925 it has had its own permanent companies (orchestra, ballet and choir) and its own production workshops, which have allowed the theatre to organise its own seasons since the 1930s, funded by the city budget. Since then, the Colón renewed its repertoire annually or by stagione, and has been able to set up whole productions on its own because of the professionalism of its specialised stagecraft staff. Throughout the history of the theatre, no artist of importance of the 20th century has failed to appear on its stage. It's enough to mention singers such as Enrico Caruso, Claudia Muzio, Maria Callas, Régine Crespin, Birgit Nilsson, Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, dancers such as Vaslav Nijinski, Margot Fonteyn, Maia Plisetskaia, Rudolf Nureyev, Mijail Barishnikov, and conductors such as Arturo Toscanini, Herbert von Karajan, Héctor Panizza, Ferdinand Leitner, among dozens of others. It is also common for composers to come to the theatre to conduct or supervise the first performances of their productions, a tradition established by Richard Strauss, Camille Saint-Saëns, Pietro Mascagni and Ottorino Respighi.
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  • Many important figures have worked steadily at the theatre to achieve their highest artistic goals, like Erich Kleiber and Fritz Busch, stage directors like Margarita Wallmann and Ernst Poettgen, ballet teachers like Bronislawa Nijinska and Tamara Grigorieva, choral directors like Romano Gandolfi and Tullio Boni, not to mention the many instrumental soloists, symphony orchestras and chamber orchestras who have graced our stage on many unforgettable evenings over more than a hundred years of uninterrupted activity. Finally, as of the year 2010, the Teatro Colón boasts a building restored to all its original glory, giving an air of distinction to its productions. All these reasons are what make the Teatro Colón a pride of the Argentinian culture and a standard for opera, ballet and classical music across the world.
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  • The name of the square commemorates the Revolution of May 25, 1810 , the date on which the citizens gathered there to expel the Viceroy and form a Creole government.
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  • Since then, the square has been a silent witness to the most important political and social events in the country .
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  • The Casa Rosada was named for its distinctive color. It was from the balcony here, at the presidential palace, that Eva Perón famously addressed the throngs of impassioned supporters packed into Plaza de Mayo. (Note that the building houses offices; the presidential residence is in the northern suburb of Olivos.) Free hour-long guided tours are given on weekends and must be booked online in advance; bring ID. The building occupies the site where colonial riverbank fortifications once stood; today, however, after repeated landfills, the palace stands more than 1km inland. The interesting Museo Casa Rosada is located behind the palace.
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  • One theory goes that the Casa Rosada's pink hue represented President Sarmiento's attempts to make peace during his 1868–74 term (by blending the red of the Federalists with the white of the Unitarians), but the more likely explanation is that it was caused by mixing white paint with bovine blood, a common practice in the late 19th century.
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  • Located in La boca, the Caminito (little path, in Spanish) is a street museum of colourful painted houses typical of the immigrant dwellings that came to chracterise this portside area towards the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century. The Caminito followed the route of an old stream that once flowed into the Riachuelo, and later, after the river dried up, formed part of a railroad route. After the closure of the railroad, the street was largely abandoned until in the 1950s a group of neighbours decided to regenerate the area and local artist Benito Quinquela Martín began using the tenements as his canvas. Today, there are several works by Argentine artists incorporated as part of the street museum and the Caminito has become a favourite with visitors to the city. Several restaurants offer tango and folk dance shows and street fills with artists offering original crafts and paintings.
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  • The tenement buildings made of wood and sheet metal are typical of the conventillos, precarious, communal dwellings built by Genoan immigrants starting in the late 19th century. Many dwellings are built on raised foundations due to frequent floods in the past.
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  • Facing the Plaza de Mayo, the Metropolitan Cathedral is the Catholic Church's main site in Argentina, and is where Pope Francis, as Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio, used to perform mass before assuming office in the Vatican in 2013. In Bergoglio's honour, the Cathedral now houses the Pope Francis Museum, which exhibits some of his personal and liturgical objects. The Cathedral’s history is a long and turbulent one. Since the first chapel on the same site was constructed in 1593 under the orders of the city’s founder Juan de Garay, the building has been redesigned and rebuilt seven times. The last construction, the one that we see today, was started in 1752 but not completed until the mid-nineteenth century. You may be struck by the building’s façade, more reminiscent of a Greek temple perhaps than a Catholic church. The twelve Neo-Classical columns at the front represent the twelve apostles of Christ, supporting a triangular frontispiece. This frontispiece, in bas-relief, depicts the encounter between Jacob and his son, Joseph, in Egypt, and was intended as an allegory of the unity of the Argentine nation after civil unrest.
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  • Behind the columns, the front wall of the Cathedral’s is adorned with religious symbolism, and a votive candle whose eternal flame recalls the liberator General Jose de San Martín and the Unknown Soldier during the Wars of Independence. The Cathedral’s impressive interior décor - with its five naves and transept, surmounted by a 41-metre high vault - is in neo-Romanesque and neo-Baroque styles. Its floors are covered by Venetian mosaics and depict various religious symbols, like the passion flower or “mburucuyá” in its native Guaraní, which symbolizes the Passion of Christ.
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  • This rest area is visited everyday by countless local residents and tourists who love water sports or just wish to spend a relaxing day on the pebble beach. At the facilities of the old jetty, there are snack bars, restaurants, canoe and kayak rental stores and a windsurfing and SCUBA diving school. Visitors may enjoy the sunshine, the wind and the water as they practice some of the specialties at this spot.
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  • Those who choose kayaking should wear a wetsuit and the spraydeck that prevents the water from entering the boat. It is usual to paddle up to Huemul Island, which lies 1,200 meters off shore, or to Gallina Island.
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  • Cerro Catedral was named for the granite spires that sit atop the mountain and resemble a gothic church. Catedral is also a church for skiers and snowboarders who visit this Bariloche ski resort to worship the snow god! Cerro Catedral (aka Catedral Alta Patagonia) is an incredibly aesthetically pleasing ski resort. The views of “the cathedral” are gorgeous and the vistas across Lake Nahuel Huapi fall into the OMG category.
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  • Cerro Catedral is now a very well developed ski resort (by South American standards). The mountain has undergone a transformation with millions of dollars spent on lifts and infrastructure, and Cerro Catedral is one of just a few South American ski resorts to truly have a village at the base.