La Catedral en la Penitenciaría: historia de un fastuoso proyecto urbanístico para Buenos Aires (1934)

Abstract

In 1934, the city of Buenos Aires considered the idea of raising a new cathedral of colossal dimensions in the neighborhood of Palermo, in the same location where the National Penitentiary was. The purpose of this work is to understand what made possible for the argentine Church, the city government and other social actors to get involved in such a huge project; as well as to explain what other circumstances led to the eventual failure of it. We believe that the project not only shows the dimensions of Catholicism by the 1930s, but also illustrates about the roll of the State and the mobilization forms of the society of Buenos Aires during that period. Throughout general Agustín P. Justo’s government, the so called “catholic nation myth” (as stated by historian Loris Zanatta) shined at its best, and the echoes of the impressive success of the International Eucharistic Congress of 1934 were still in the air. There couldn’t be a more propitious context for such a project. Yet despite the good predisposal the authorities seemed to have with the Church in the ‘30s, the project ended up being filed.