A centaur is a monster. It brings together two distinct natures to give rise to a coexistence not without problems, but still possible. Its origin seems to be that of a northern tribe of horsemen uncertain of singular skill. When some Greeks were the first time, perhaps in the evening twilight or in the morning and furious backlight, thought it was a single animal, such was the symbiosis between knight and horse. That day they were born into being birthed by a wrong way.
gained fame when they were invited to Pirithous wedding, king of the Lapita, with the beautiful Hippodamia, as they were, through the intricacies of mythical ancestors, cousins \u200b\u200bof the bridegroom. During the party, which extended beyond measure, centaurs gave to abandon, driven by the abundance of sweet wine that was served by the piece. The Lapita people, subjects of the homeowner and so eager to show severe before the King, were ordered to expel these troublesome guests, which was not without a rough fight. Nothing that happens in marriages today.
centaurs fled to the rugged Thessaly and were always taken an example of what happens when passions are no brakes. However, despite the heavy burden of adverse fame, some members of the species she escaped. The most famous was the celebrated Chiron, teacher of an impressive list of heroes and cognizant of the dark art of medicine, which in those days no one dared prudent to call science.
Thus, the Centaur became a symbol of hope for those who want to escape the fate. Chiron's story shows that it is possible to break the tight circle that the need arises. This inexorable fate that condemned them to be slaves to their passions and be forever expelled from the party. The triumph of the wise centaur might be the result to accept the fate of a dual existence, sometimes difficult, sometimes incomprehensible, but nevertheless possible.
body
was difficult to build the body. Its dimensions were not always those we know, but thought from the beginning in a destiny of greatness. And was always there, calling on the northwest corner of the square, where stood Garay on 11 June 1580, the day he founded the city. He took his place forever in the arbitrary grid, drawn with determination, following the old Roman custom. Its location was definitive, but growth was hard and difficult, marked by disasters and the stubborn lack of money.
The origin of straw and willow was shaken by the weather and wind. In 1605 we have the first news of a hazard that will end in collapse. The heat of January 1618 marks the beginning of the reconstruction, with the reddish wood that fell from the wooded boat Paraguay. Began a troubled existence tenuous, which repeatedly had to use braces and other devices to keep up. A body that was born marked by the ailments.
With a surprising speed, the village was declared a diocese, as an early sign of his future greatness, in 1620. Paul V Borghese, named for the office lively Seville Pedro Carranza readily involved in the political fortunes of the village, as he notes, was just over a hundred houses. Without even the priest arrived, he received Holy Orders in Santiago del Estero and Santa Fe Episcopal Her scrolls were so weak as it received apostolic. In their letters to Spain, he repeatedly complained of bad conditions on the building of the Cathedral. Despite the relative unimportance of his bishopric, small souls but immeasurable in extent, the new pastor was not frightened at the time of claim. The Buenos Aires and blowing proverbial pride in what was little more than a village.
The building of adobe made his way passed the half century XVII, with the arrival of the third bishop, a Dominican named Lima impressive: Cristóbal de la Mancha and Velazco. This time there was a map drawn with three large ships, but his execution appeared fraught with difficulties. For the inability of the builders, or by deficiency of poor materials, construction seemed to recede more than they progressed. It succeeded cracks promptly announced landslides occurred to the dismay of neighbors. Finally, on May 23, 1752, very early in the morning with a bang accompanied by a cloud of dust, tumbled three flimsy craft.
Only three years later he took up the works finally lead to successful completion of the company. Despite his wounds, his body was standing, to the astonishment of the neighbors, and his future looked incredulous. Perseverance had paid off in the pile of bricks, which still showed the rispidez of skin that had not yet received the softness of the cake. The ship was large and generous height, following the model imposed by the Jesuits. Churches for worship, but also attentive to indoctrinate the faithful. It was consecrated in 1804, a few years before the country was born. There will be remembered
those neighbors many times intensified the despair and the feeling that never lead to fruition this great project. Humiliated and should not listen to travelers arriving from other parts of the viceroyalty had the wonders of other temples, silver with the fruits of Potosi. They must have thought many times, crossing the portals of the archway, seeing her body battered and incomplete, that perhaps his destiny was the excessive punishment of an illusion. It was time to enjoy the great dome that seemed to have the power to hold the entire village, which is obviously awesome.
Baroque
A reminder vibrating on the walls, but it was an austere countenance. There is no place here for the wall to fold or the brightness of gold. Huge massive pillars supporting the roof are remnants of the fear of so many ruins. His bearing a disproportionate isolates wide aisles and ostracized to the line of chapels. These live an autonomous existence, but dignified, little by little starting to be populated with images of favorite saints of the village.
colonial style materialized right before leaving a colony. The body lying like a huge animal and patient'm prepared to look at the rowdy events that already loomed on the horizon next. The dual landing of the English, the glorious days of Liniers seasoned with hot oil, the anxious people in the square in the rain is distressed by his fate, the victories of the weapons in the fields of America and the uncertainty of a territory not finished forged a nation. She saw, leaning from the angle of the square, dreams of the early patriots unconscionable and also attended their failures, when the pyramid Colts tied the brave and his gauchos Ramírez. Knew more than all of ups and downs, of landslides and reconstructions. Build a body takes time and, above all, the inescapable ally of faith is perseverance.
The body is the memory, its fundamentals are driven into the ground, in the U.S. and also in the distant Spain. It's tough, but a heart that melts. It is solid and is the realization of a dream dreamed long time. May criticize its hardiness, and probably seem heavy, dense harmony, but nobody can deny his sincerity. About the animal that emerges from the earth, the sovereign fleet subtle blue tiled dome. It contrasts a transcendent dream flying over the body pregnant with dreams.
head
Despite the promises delivered by that morning in 1804 without knowing who was the last bishop under English rule, the headless body lay. Well attended face devoid of civil war that ended in a land broken up, as if his complaint was lack of those years of violence and without reason. Buenos Aires, to the inability of the nation, try to walk alone for a few years their fate. And in that context was that it was decided to give his cathedral, never as metropolitan, finally a face. Often
Cathedral in its troubled history, had attempted the task of shop front, but the hesitation of the body is inevitably transmitted to the head. We are images of how these attempts have been towers, whose profile had been prominent in the sky over the roofs of a city from the river, stood on the horizon crushed. Anyway, imagine them square and devoid of any remnant of slenderness. Signs that the accumulated body called extreme caution.
best luck I had known, those towers had naturally accompanied the colonial body. Have been the logical continuation of that impulse of years, the company expected final and bicentennial. However, it seems that in these distant shores causes and effects were not meant to happen without conflict. The dream of colonial towers filled with bells on Sunday morning repeatedly succumbed. The body does not produce a head in line with their anatomy. Born on the centaur.
The project stems from a conflict, it was not the result of a quiet harmony, but a power relationship. Was created during a singularly rough contest between two old protagonists of ancient disputes, the Church and State. The years that followed the revolution heavily damaged this relationship, political and ideological reasons, but mainly for practical reasons. The collapse of English rule did lose a reference ecclesiastical authorities was much more rooted in Spain than in Rome. On the other hand, the papacy saw with natural fear the loss of traditional monarchies allied with their interests, not only political but pastoral. The orphan status of the clergy who did not secure footholds led to situations that required the intervention of the civil authority.
The charge of carrying forward this initiative was the powerful minister of the fledgling government of Buenos Aires, Bernardino Rivadavia. This, provided with intelligence and will that had no equal among his peers, he set to work with singular energy. The result was the much-discussed "Reform of the secular and regular clergy, which was to be established in January 1823, after harsh debates, involving all of society. The consequences of this reform were broad and to some extent set the tone for the following disputes were to define the different roles that the Church and the State would be in the emerging society.
The front of the cathedral is a vivid image of those disputes and is a clear sign of what they represented. In his conception is the desire to give the episcopal seat of power a new look. This should somehow hide her body colonial relic of English rule, with a new face to do honor to the French lights, under which the revolution had wrought. Some people see it as the arrogant imposition of the state over the church authorities, but all done supports different readings. The new front of the Cathedral, donated in full by the City Government is right to acknowledge, may also be read as a desire coexistence.
The project is strongly inspired by Rivadavia, was conducted by the French architect Prosper Catelin in 1822, when it raged with greater virulence of the conflict. It was part of a series of works undertaken in the city tended to leave the past behind English to replace the modern French style, to give a true account of cultural change, which existed in the minds of the rulers rather than the everyday sense of the city and its inhabitants. This included a real intention to comprehensive reform plan, not just civic buildings that aimed to establish the rule of the lights. Among them are the creation of the University of Buenos Aires and the many initiatives in the field of education and health.
This power of renewal inspired, except in the large parentheses Rosas, the spirit of the fledgling nation well into the twentieth century saw a concept that the Church was opposed to their goals. Anyway, this competition, sometimes rough, never reached the prosecution or the outright hostility. The Cathedral was not demolished, its neoclassical facade tax can be a strong signal, but in no way prevents the manifestation of the body that beats behind their columns.
The choice of classical architecture model has an obvious explanation. Classical culture was always viewed as an expression a reason precedes faith. The bright Greek temple is somehow the building type that the Christian faith came to be replaced by a Gothic darkness. It may protest against this false reading, but I certainly recognize its validity through the years. She was the inspiration paradoxically the front of our temple.
what was discussed was the specific model of the work, being common the belief that it is the temple of the Madeleine in Paris, who was born full of vicissitudes. This, in addition to the intricate story, shared with the connivance of our cathedral styles, from baroque interior and exterior neoclassical in the case of the French church of columns surrounding the baroque building in its entirety. Also notable are the differences, beyond the problem of dates, as the Madeleine is a temple of eight columns, which sticks to the classic reference par excellence, the Parthenon.
Apparently, the gateway to Buenos Aires could be inspired by the Palais Bourbon, located opposite the Madeleine closing the gap on the Place de la Concorde, across the Seine. The building now houses the French Parliament, was completed in 1804 and has a portico of twelve columns like our cathedral. In both cases we can say that from the standpoint of classical proportions, the porch resolution is unfortunate and excessive width is difficult to control.
With astonishing speed, took up the columns that were already up in 1823. However, remained bare without revoking and without receiving the capitals by the lapse of the next thirty years. With the advent of the definitive integration of the city to the national assembly, is crowned with acanthus columns and bas-reliefs were made on the frontispiece. The allegory of the reconciliation of Joseph with his brothers became clear at that time, after the rare victory of Pavón. His message of forgiveness, so often evoked throughout our history, remains in force even today in our days.
The end result, which concluded with forty years behind the dream of Rivadavia, is at a disadvantage with respect to its French model. The Corinthian, the most distinguished of the Greek orders, have here a notable lack of slenderness, collaborating with the smooth shafts of the columns reversed. It does not help the low height of the stairway, which prevents the flat rate will see at least enhanced. All this combined with the practical impossibility to live with both styles, the colonial and neo-classical, gracefully.
wise head was finally completed just when the country was reborn again, apparently with a definite vocation of becoming a state. She was the first to succumb to the charm of French style, you'll see shortly how this permeates all around. The Cabildo neighbor, friend of so many struggles, he will suffer the cruel mutilation of their frames to make room for a smug avenue. Nothing would be the stern Strong, replaced by the union of two anonymous buildings for no apparent reason, one day is teñirían pink. Years later, the porch will be routed obliquely threatening a diagonal and far emerge as a sword the geometric profile of an obelisk.
Soul
The nature of the centaur puts a strain on the idea of \u200b\u200bperfection. The harmony is difficult in the hybrids. However, the lack of perfection is not always lack of beauty. Particularly if it assists a soul material. The body and the head of our Cathedral are a reality, the product of its own history which reflects one that is included. His material is an act to be a metaphor for what we are, and your soul is the possibility of what we hope will someday be.
often assaulted by a thirst assails me iconoclastic desire to end his head. Submit your French pride to the hard severity of the pillory. Inventing a Baroque facade of towers that were aligned with the body and beat together with the blue dome. What matters that were not learned their ways of a yellow plane in time. It may be possible to invent the past, imagine consistent. But then I resign and I calm down. I realize it is a mistake, as it is all lies. The good thing is to learn the message that the building from the side of the square quietly tells us almost four centuries.
He first calls us to persevere in the faith, as were those who built with brick body determination. And it calls us to use our intelligence to find the balance that sets out its classical portico columns. It is necessary from our complex being, assume the contradictions and engage with the dialectic hard to understand our destiny, born of a double identity. Recognizing our colonial heavy body that inevitably we come and fly with our minds driven by the utopia of reason to this country than others dreamed. The body and head are always unfinished soul whose construction calls for our efforts. As the Cathedral, Argentina, is composed of body, head and soul. Make it two hundred years ago as now, this requires the three elements together, without exception, in a synthesis difficult and certainly imperfect, but always possible.
Maybe we should start to embrace our destiny as centaurs.
(in Argentina: Two hundred years , journal "Communio", Year 17, No. 3, Spring 2010)
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