Mercado de Abasto de Buenos Aires, former fruit and vegetable market in Balvanera, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The Mercado de Abasto de Buenos Aires is a 44,000 m² market hall on Avenida Corrientes, designed by Slovenian architect Viktor Sulčič in an original Art Deco style with brutalist touches and built in reinforced concrete, the first such building in the city. Its facade combines pale stone or concrete walls with tall brick-red piers, a red metal truss holding a grid of translucent glass panels, and large arched bays with concentric moulded bands.

The Devoto brothers requested a supply market on their Balvanera land in 1888; the first section opened on 1 April 1893 near the railway, between La Boca and Olivos. The old buildings were replaced by Viktor Sulčič's reinforced-concrete design, whose foundation stone was laid on 28 December 1931 and which reopened on 24 March 1934 with 44,000 m², rail access and underground parking. Trading ceased on 14 October 1984, when operations moved to Tapiales.

The name Abasto comes from the market's function as the city's wholesale supply point for fruit and vegetables. In 1955 the film "Mercado de Abasto" was shot inside the building, starring Pepe Arias and Tita Merello. The market's activity also drew theatre, card games and bocce into the surrounding block.

The building stands at Avenida Corrientes 3247, between Agüero and T. M. Anchorena, in Balvanera. The underground link to Line B of the subway, opened on 12 June 1933, was later sealed with a masonry wall after the 1952 fire. At street level, look for the red "Salida" sign with a white car symbol on the right pier.

The 1952 basement fire lasted several days; the tunnel to subway Line B fed the flames like a chimney, so the passage was sealed with a masonry wall. The building stayed closed from 1984 until its 1998 conversion into the Abasto shopping center.