Catedral

Last week we finished up our first Spanish class at the University of Buenos Aires, and we have a week off before the next level starts. So since we have some extra time we went and took a peak at the Municipal Cathedral in Plaza de Mayo, across from the Casa Rosada. From the exterior, it doesn`t look too much like a church. It`s got Corinthian columns (with the curly-cues), and looks more like a government institution.

The main sight inside the church is the mausoleum of San Martín, who was involved in the liberation of Argentina, Chile and Peru... possible others, not sure.

They seem to like their mausoleums in Latin America, and I suppose that all their liberations came at a simlar time, after Napolean took over Spain and brought the legitimacy of Spanish rule into question. We also had a look at a very interesting mausoleum in Montevideo with an honour guard. There was also something similar in Santiago de Chile, but we weren`t able to figure out if we could go in or not.

Anyways, the mausoleum is quite interesting; the sarcophagus is guarded by sculptures on all sides, and if that`s not enough there is a 24 hour honour guard outside the chapel. We were lucky to be there to see a changing of the guard. All the tourists in the church (of which the majority was comprised) rushed over to watch, and had to run out of the way of the guards, who were not about to stop for them. They`ve got pointy swords, as can be seen by the marks they leave in the floor where they rest them while on dury, and I wonder if they`ve ever been tempted to give a poking to tourists who were slow to move out of the way...

mike