Pirámide de Mayo
Buenos Aires' oldest national monument was rushed to completion in weeks from 500 bricks for a birthday party — then physically moved 63 metres east over a century later.
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Ordered by the Primera Junta in April 1811 to mark the first anniversary of the May Revolution, it was inaugurated on schedule even though construction wasn't finished. In 1912 the whole pyramid was relocated to make room for a grander monument — which was never built. The French sculptor Joseph Dubourdieu's Liberty figure still stands at the top, Phrygian cap and all.
What to look for
- The Liberty allegory by Joseph Dubourdieu at the summit, capped with a Phrygian cap — the structure reaches 18.76 metres to its tip
- The pyramid's current position, 63 metres east of where it originally stood in 1811 when it faced the Cabildo
- The overall scale: a single slender shaft of brick rising from the hub of the plaza, with the Casa Rosada and Cabildo anchoring opposite ends
The pyramid stands in the center of Plaza de Mayo and is viewable at any hour from the open square.
Pirámide de Mayo is one of 34 sights worth the detour in Buenos Aires, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Buenos Aires pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Buenos Aires
- Mas Monumental Stadium85,018 seats on reclaimed Río de la Plata marshland — the largest stadium in South America, and the ground where a World Cup Final was played.
- La BomboneraThat chocolate-box shape doesn't just look strange — the unusual design gives the bowl its famously excellent acoustics.
- Casa RosadaThe baby-pink paint was a political recipe: mix the Federalists' red with the Unitarians' white, and maybe stop a civil war.
- Teatro ColónAcoustics expert Leo Beranek surveyed leading international opera and orchestra directors and ranked this hall the world's best room for opera — not a slogan, a measured result.
- Oscar and Juan Gálvez Race TrackF1 cars once screamed through the third corner here at 305 km/h, flat out for 40 straight seconds — and the grandstands put you right on top of it.
- Palacio BaroloA 1923 tower mapped floor by floor onto Dante's Divine Comedy — hell at the base, purgatory in the middle, heaven at the top.