18. - The National Museum of Decorative Art. - Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo
It is an impressive building in neo classical French style, built in 1911 to serve as a residence. The mansion resembles the buildings on the Place de la Concorde in Paris and was designed by the architect Ren Sergent. The most important European decorators of those days left their stamp on each of the glorious rooms in this building.

The Argentinean government bought it in 1937 to convert it into a national museum. The collection includes Flemish tapestries, porcelains, ivory carvings, silver and glassware and baroque style furniture pieces. Most of these objects were the property of the same aristocratic family that owned the building: Matas Errzuriz and Josefina de Alvear.

The entrance portico to the present museum closely resembles the design of the Petit Trianon of the Versailles Palace, in France.

We suggest you to take a careful look at the impressive El Greco oil painting in the Grand Hall on the ground floor. The main rooms of this mansion end up in a terrace with a panoramic view over the green woods of Palermo.

In the museum basement there is an interesting art bookshop that carries books about all types of works of art.

It is open every day to the public between the 2 PM and 7 PM. We advece you to take a guided tour of its six rooms: the Antechamber, the Study, the Grand Hall, the Louis XIV Dining Room, Ball rooms and Sitting room. This you can do Tuesdays through Sundays at 4:30 PM. It is located on Avenida del Libertador Nr. 1902. Tel.: 4806-8306.

19. - The National Library - Biblioteca Nacional
Inaugurated in 1992, it occupies a surface of 45,000 square metres (Square yards) and holds close to 1,8 million books, which makes it one of the largest and most important on the American continent.

This magnificent building is placed in a park, called the Reader's Plaza, and which was part of the Presidential Residency from 1943 to 1955, during the then Argentinean presidents, starting with Presidente Austria up till Agero. It is a 13-story building. It includes an auditorium, art gallery and a newspaper library. It needs to be mentioned that it has a special section for Braille readers.

Visiting hours are Mondays through Saturdays from 8 AM to 9 PM and Sundays between noon and 8 PM. Mondays through Fridays you can take a guided tour at 4 PM. It is located on Agero Street Nr. 2502. Tel.: 4806-1929 / 4806-4721.

20. - The building of the Automvil Club Argentino (ACA)
This building with 12 floors and 3 basements was constructed in 1943 as the headquarters for the Argentinean Automobile Club - Automvil Club Argentino, a non profit organisation, which offers various services to its members all over the country. The famous engineer Vilar designed and overlooked the construction.

One of its major attractions is the Automobile Museum - Museo del Automvil, the vintage cars that used to circulate on the streets of the country can be seen. Among them is the first car ever in Buenos Aires, from 1895, which belonged to Dalmiro Varela Castex. Nine years later, in 1904, the ACA was founded and by then there was quite e lot of cars around town.

You can visit from Mondays through Fridays from 10 AM to 5 PM. It is not open on Sundays or holidays. In its Tourist Department you can find road maps and Information on tourism activities in Argentina. It is located on Avenida del Libertador Nr. 1850. Tel.: 4801-1837.

21. - The Papal Nuncio's Palace - Nunciatura Apostlica
A lordly palace located on Alvear Av Nr 1637. The architect Le Monnier finished building it in 1909 as a special assignment for Juan Antonio Fernndez and Rosa de Anchorena, who travelled to Europe to settle there and thus never got to live in it.

From 1922 to 1928, during the presidency of Mximo Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear, this charming building was rented to serve as a presidential residence.

Adelia Harilaos de Olmos, donated it to the Vatican in 1949 to be used as its diplomatic Apostolic See. The pope John Paul II stayed there during his visits to Argentina in 1982 and in 1987.

22. - Floraris Genrica (The Giant Flower of Buenos Aires)
On the Plaza Naciones Unidas (United Nations Square), at the intersection of the Libres del Sur, Tagle and Figueroa Alcorta Avs, there is a giant flower made of aluminium and steel. Its approximate weight is 4000 lbs or almost 18 metric tonnes. It is approximately 50 ft (23 metres high). It was donated by the Argentinean architect Eduardo Catalano, and it was set up in 2002.

The huge flower is illuminated at night by 60 spotlights, and is reflected in a water mirror of 45 metres across (approximately 100 ft) surrounded by walkways and paths. It is part of a park area of nearly 4 hectares (almost ten acres) with the TV Channel 7 tower and the imposing Faculty of Law and Social Science standing guard over it.

The enormous metal construct is made up of six petals, and every one of them weighs approximately 3,500 kilos (almost a thousand pounds each) and is mounted on a conical structure. Inside are the pistils, made up of four conically shaped pillars of different heights. The internal illumination is made up of two reflector lights for each petal and two concentrating reflectors.

The grass is irrigated by a subterranean irrigation system made up of sixty sprinklers and eighty nozzles.

The giant flower is moved by a mechanism that makes the petals open up slowly with the first rays of the sun until it is completely open. It reaches a diameter of 32 metres (almost 100 ft.); then, at dusk, it closes again until only 16 metres (50 ft) across. Its movements are controlled by a computer.

HOW TO GET THERE
Bus lines
2, 9, 10, 20, 22, 24, 25, 28, 29, 33, 46, 53, 54, 61, 64, 86, 93, 126, 142, 143, 152 and 159.