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Argentina

Buenos Aires underground

The historical centre of Buenos Aires' City is the "Plaza de Mayo" (May's Park) around which you can find the "Casa Rosada" (the Pink House), the National Government seat; the Cathedral; the "Cabildo" (where the first government was formed in 1810); the National Bank and the Ministries. Southwards, two blocks from the "Cabildo", stands the "Manzana de las Luces", a place limited by four streets where you can find the Buenos Aires' National School, the St. Ignatius Church (bastion of the powerful Jesuit order, expelled from America in 1767 due to their power rivalry with the Spanish government) and the building where the first museum, the first university and, towards 1840, the first legislature of Buenos Aires worked.
It may be said that the "Manzana de las Luces" synthesizes in itself the most intense part of the history of this city; church, university, education, legislatures, etc. Today it's a cultural centre.

The bibliography of the students of the past century make some references to the mysterious tunnels of the School where the leaders of Argentine generations were educated. The tunnels were part of the legends of prankish students. But it was in 1912 when it was discovered that the tunnels were something more than a legend: during excavations (several public constructions were made in this time), just where the "Manzana de las Luces" is located the ground collapsed. It was an engineer: Hector Greislebin who studies for the first time this tunnels that by that time came to see light once again.
Today the tunnels are being studied by Argentine and North-American archaeologists, only 70 meters long are authorized for tourism as the rest are not safe enough due to the humidity and the possibilities of tumbling down (traffic in that area is abundant nearly all day long). The investigations are directed by the Institute of Historical Investigations of the "Manzana de las Luces". Some interesting information about the tunnels can be summarized as follows:

• The tunnels form a labyrinthic net with false exits. There are people that think the original trace of the tunnels followed codes of construction of esoteric type. This also explains the fact that all the exits communicate each other and with all the institutions representing the political power of the viceregal time: the Viceroy's House, the churches (specially the Jesuitic ones, all powerful by that time), the "Cabildo", the port, the Custom-house.
• Some tunnels were built 15 meters deep. Their total length is unknown. The 70 meters opened for tourism are located beneath the "Manzana de las Luces". The section that is being studied is beneath the "Cabildo", approximately 150 meters from the other area. The corridors are large, in some cases a man on horseback was able to go through them.
• Some people think that the tunnels were built by the Jesuits as the net have as a permanent confluence spot the Church (St. Ignatius, the name comes from the founder of the order: St Ignatius of Loyola) in the "Manzana de las Luces".

• a) Defensive purposes: the tunnels were part of a defensive system against the indians (first stage) and against the Portuguese, the English and the French (second stage).
• b) Smuggling: Buenos Aires was not able to deal legally with other European ports due to the Spanish commercial monopoly, but smuggling was uninterrupted since the establishment of the city; there are authors that consider smuggling as the main source of enrichment and the formation of the commercial bourgeoisie (middle class) of Buenos Aires, main protagonist of the independist policy of the beginning of the nineteenth century.
• c) Illegal trade of slaves

As the underground history of Buenos Aires becomes known, it will offer new clues to disembowel the whole history of the city and of Argentina.

Other Argentine cities in which nets of underground tunnels were found.

• Córdoba: Capital of the province of Córdoba. It is located 715 km from Buenos Aires and it is places in the geographic centre of the country. It was the most important cultural centre of the country during the Viceregal time and it was and it still is today the city where important political movements originate.
• Paraná: Capital of the province of Entre Ríos. It is located 500 km from Buenos Aires. It is settled next to the Paraná river therefore it always had a strategic importance as a place where military, commercial fleets, etc. arrived. It was the seat of the government during the decade after Governor Juan Manuel de Rosas' (1852) downfall. During that decade Argentina was divided into two estates: a) Buenos Aires and b) the Argentine Confederation with Paraná as its capital.
  Paraná also has its own net of tunnels that communicate to the cliffs of the river, that is why they are supposed to be part of a defensive-escape system. The tunnels are vaulted similar to the "Morro" fortress (Puerto Rico-Cuba) and they communicate each other to the main forts of the city, today they are public promenades.

This information can be used with reference to its author and source.
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Last modified: 04/10/96