TheIlluminated Block (Spanish:Manzana de las Luces) is a historical landmark in theMonserrat neighbourhood ofBuenos Aires,Argentina.
TheSociety of Jesus arrived in the newly founded village ofBuenos Ayres in 1608, establishing their first mission on a 2 hectare (5 acre) lot which had earlier been destined by SpanishconquistadorJuan de Garay for the future town square. The Jesuits' 1661 sale of the property (which would ultimately become thePlaza de Mayo) and a gift of an adjacent lot by Isabel de Carvajal allowed the order to build a new, largely self-reliant mission. Work began in 1686 on theSaint Ignatius Church, abaroque structure completed in 1722, and the adjoining College of St. Ignatius was designed by local architect Juan Kraus and built between 1710 and 1729. Becoming the only academy in colonial Buenos Aires to provide aclassical education, and the property possessed the city's finest laboratories, museum and library. The center housed the Office of the Advocate General of the Missions (which oversaw the order's numerous, lucrativeIndian Reductions), as well as a pharmacy (the city's first) opened and operated by an English Jesuit, FatherThomas Falkner.[1]
The 1767suppression of the Society of Jesus led to the mission's closure, however, as well as an associated one housing a hospital, in the nearbySan Telmo district. The academy was closed only temporarily, and was converted in 1772 into the Royal College of San Carlos. The temple was usurped and converted into acathedral in 1775, though Father Falkner's pharmacy formed the basis for ViceroyJuan José de Vértiz's Medical Court of 1780 - the first school of medicine in what is today Argentina.[2] Viceroy Vértiz also established the city's first printing press at the site, in 1780, as well as an orphanage funded by sales of the facility's printed material.[1]
The center later had an anecdotal role in theArgentine War of Independence. TheRegiment of Patricians was briefly headquartered in 1811 at the college, where the regiment staged a failed mutiny against their commander, GeneralManuel Belgrano. A network of five tunnels intersecting under the former mission (believed to have been built to guarantee the flow of supplies in the event of a siege, and to facilitate smuggling in peacetime) helped safeguard ammunitions during much of the war.[1] The provisional government organized from theMay Revolution of 1810, theFirst Assembly, opened a public library in 1812, and following the War of Independence, GovernorMartín Rodríguez inaugurated theUniversity of Buenos Aires and the General Archive, in 1821. A few days later, the city's leading newspaper,El Argos, described the area as the "Illuminated Block" in a September 1, 1821, editorial.[3]
Governor Rodríguez also established the Provincial Legislature and theBank of the Province of Buenos Aires at the site, in 1822, as well as the city's firstnatural sciences museum (later housed in the nearbySanto Domingo convent). A secondary school established in 1817 in the Illuminated Block byJuan Martín de Pueyrredón eventually became theBuenos Aires National College, one of the nation's most prestigiousuniversity-preparatory schools, in 1863.[3]
The Provincial Legislature was used as theArgentine National Congress during the short-livedFirst Republic (1826–27), and was again used as such from 1862 to 1864, while newer facilities were built nearby. TheBuenos Aires City Legislature also met at the site from 1894 to 1931, when its current building was completed. The old Provincial Legislature's final use was as the University of Buenos Aires School of Architecture (until 1972).[3]
The Illuminated Block was declared aNational Historic Monument, in 1942, and was (with three of the catacombs) extensively restored, in 1983.[1]
34°36′38″S58°22′28″W / 34.61056°S 58.37444°W /-34.61056; -58.37444
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