Galerías Pacífico, shopping mall in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Galerías Pacífico occupies the whole block bounded by Florida, Viamonte, San Martín and Córdoba, in the Edificio Pacífico built from 1888 to around 1905. Two large passages cross in an X, dividing the block into four equal sectors under glass vaults and a central dome. The corner is chamfered, with a red sign reading "GALERÍAS PACÍFICO" near the top and glass shopfronts at street level.
Designed in 1888 by engineer Emilio Agrelo and architect Roland Le Vacher as a branch of the Parisian Au Bon Marché, the building opened in sections between 1894 and 1898. In 1896 it housed the first home of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, and in 1908 the Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway bought part of it for offices, giving it the name Edificio Pacífico. Declared a National Historic Monument in 1989, it reopened as a shopping centre on 18 May 1992.
The name comes from the Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway, which bought the building in 1908 and kept offices here; its line was meant to reach Valparaíso and the Pacific. Since 1992 the centre has housed the Centro Cultural Borges, the Esplendor hotel and the Julio Bocca classical dance school. In 2014 it was reported as the shopping centre most visited by international tourists in Argentina, with 10 million visitors a year.
The building fills the block bounded by Florida, Viamonte, San Martín and Córdoba, with two cross-shaped passages dividing it into four sections; enter from Florida or from the Córdoba corner. The 1945-47 dome murals are in the central hall, and the Centro Cultural Borges occupies the upper floor. The basement that held a clandestine detention centre during the last dictatorship is not part of the shopping route.
In 1987 a film crew found an abandoned torture centre in the building's basement, used during the Dirty War; the building was declared a National Historic Monument in 1989. The 1945–1947 dome murals by Berni, Spilimbergo, Castagnino, Urruchúa and Colmeiro Guimarás are considered the foremost work of Argentine muralism.
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