Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
With all the storefronts identical and with a
glass-covered roof allowing natural light to fil-
ter in, the effect is one of relaxed comfort. There
are restaurants, coffee bars and cinemas. Shops
open at 10 am and stay open to 9 or 10 pm daily.
Restaurants and cinemas stay open late.
The city's most lavish shopping center,
Galerías Pacífico
, is at the corner of Calles
Florida and Córdoba downtown.
It was voted the
Best Shopping
Center of 1992
by an interna-
tional shopping
center organiza-
tion.
The building's history dates back to the 1890s
when a group of French businessmen tried to
open a branch of the French department store
Bon Marché
in Buenos Aires. An economic cri-
sis thwarted their plans and construction was
halted with only one wing of the store complete.
That wing would operate as a center for the arts
under various guises, including a stint as the
original site of Buenos Aires Fine Arts
Museum, until it was acquired by the Railway
of the Pacific. The railway renamed the build-
ing
Edificio del Pacífico
and installed its
administrative offices there.
In 1945 the railway decided to install a shopping
arcade on the ground floor. To attract merchants
and shoppers, the building was renovated, a
result of which was its signature cupola.
Did You Know?
Argentine artists Berni, Castagnino,
Spilimbergo and Urruchia were com-
missioned to paint the murals, which
are still admired by shoppers today.