Casa Rosada

Argentina's pink presidential palace on Plaza de Mayo, famous for the balcony where Evita addressed the crowds.

It sits at the eastern end of the Plaza de Mayo, the big square that has been surrounded by the city's most important political buildings since Buenos Aires was founded in 1580. Its balcony faces the square. The building also houses a museum with objects that belonged to former presidents.

From fort to palace

The site once lay on the shore of the Río de la Plata. The first building was a fort ordered by the city's founder Juan de Garay in 1594, and in 1713 a stronger stone fort with turrets called the Castle of San Miguel replaced it. In 1857 the fort was demolished to build a customs house. President Bartolomé Mitre then used the fort's surviving office annex as the presidential offices, and later presidents added to it. President Julio Roca joined it with the neighbouring Post Office and had an arch built between them in 1884. The "Pink House" was finished in 1898.

Why is it pink?

No one is completely sure. One story says President Domingo Sarmiento had it painted pink to calm politics by mixing red and white, the colours of the country's two opposing parties, the Federalists and the Unitarians. Another explanation says the original paint contained cow's blood, to protect the walls from damp.

A museum and a restoration

A Historical Museum opened in 1957 to show presidential sashes, batons, books, furniture and three carriages. Parts of the old fort were dug out in 1984 and 1985 and are now part of the museum. In the museum you can see a cannon-ball hole in a storeroom wall of the fort. The building had a big renovation, finished in its first phase for the bicentennial of the May Revolution in 2010.

On the globe

The model shows the pink palace with its balcony facing the plaza. Look for the arch and the pink walls.