Congreso Nacional

The Congreso Nacional is Argentina's parliament building — a Greco-Roman colossus topped by an 80-metre dome that anchors the western end of Avenida de Mayo and faces the Casa Rosada two kilometres away across the political geography of the city. Designed by Vittorio Meano (an Italian architect who was murdered before the building was completed in 1906) and modelled on the US Capitol, the Congreso is one of the most imposing legislative buildings in South America.

The building's exterior is white granite from Córdoba province, and the dome — visible from much of the city's western barrios — is topped by a bronze quadriga (four-horse chariot) representing the Argentine Republic in triumph. The interior, accessible via free guided tours, contains the Senate and Chamber of Deputies in rooms decorated with the kind of Belle Époque excess that Argentina could afford when it was one of the richest countries in the world: Venetian mosaics, Belgian crystal chandeliers, Spanish mahogany, and French bronzes.

Plaza Congreso, the square in front, contains the Monumento a los Dos Congresos — a fountain and monument marking Kilometre Zero, the point from which all distances in Argentina are measured. The plaza is also a traditional site for political demonstrations, and the juxtaposition of ornate European architecture with the raw energy of Argentine political protest is one of those tensions that defines Buenos Aires as a city where beauty and chaos are not opposites but companions.