BA HISTORIC CHURCHES, PART II

Among the viceroyal cities of the American colony of Spain, Buenos Aires was just a peripheral village that was founded to stop the advance of the Portuguese. This periphery turned it, in those first centuries of life, into a place where smuggling was the way of life that consolidated fortunes and sheltered adventurers who arrived escaping from other important cities such as Asunción del Paraguay, Cusco or Lima (in Peru).

However, in tune with the times, the Spanish imprint was marked in the number of churches and convents that were built, some that endure to this day, with their histories and legends. Buenos Aires has nine churches built in viceroyal times, concentrated in the historic neighborhoods of the City.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Mercy is one of the oldest Catholic temples in the city of Buenos Aires. It is located next to the Convent of San Ramon Nonato and is located a few meters from the Plaza de Mayo, in the neighborhood of San Telmo. The history of the site dates back to the foundation of Buenos Aires by Don Juan de Garay in 1580.

In the original distribution of lands, the conqueror ceded to the Church the lands between the present Reconquista, Perón, Sarmiento and Avenida Alem streets (at that time, it was the coast of the Río de la Plata). In 1589 the Mercedarian fathers arrived to the country, taking charge of these lands and building a small adobe church with wooden roofs and straw, which was dedicated to the Virgen de las Mercedes, and a contiguous convent.

The precariousness of the constructions caused that there was a second chapel until only in 1721 began the construction of the present Church that can be visited every day. From its atrium, in 1806 the attack on the Plaza Mayor (today Plaza de Mayo) was launched, during the Reconquest of Buenos Aires in the First English Invasion. Buenos Aires was devastated by two invasions of English troops, in territorial dispute with Spain.

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