Villa Ocampo
In 1580, shortly after the founding of Buenos Aires, Juan de Garay distributed 65 plots of land on the northern bank. Over the years, these properties were used for crops and plantations, until they were transformed, well into the 19th century, into summer villas for the aristocratic families of Buenos Aires.
Villa Ocampo is located at 1837 Elortondo Street, in Beccar, San Isidro district. It was built between 1890 and 1891, on a ten-hectare plot of land bordered by Libertador Avenue, Uriburu and Florencio Varela streets, and the Río de la Plata. The land belonged to Francisca Ocampo de Ocampo, who commissioned the construction of the house to her nephew, Manuel Silvino Ocampo, Victoria Ocampo's father. The engineer Ocampo equipped the house with all the technical advances of the time and the necessary comforts to accommodate his family during the summers, which extended from November to March.
Francisca Ocampo, who had no offspring, stipulated in her will that the property should pass, after the death of Manuel and his wife Ramona Aguirre, to the hands of the five daughters of the couple: Victoria, Angélica, Francisca, Rosa and Silvina. Thus, upon the death of their parents, the five Ocampo sisters inherited the house and the entire land, which was subdivided. Today Villa Ocampo has a plot of approximately one hectare.
Victoria Ocampo narrates the history of the house in the first volume of her autobiography, “El Archipiélago” (The Archipelago):
“…It began before I was born, in 1890. My father was the architect of the house and designed the park, large at that time. The house and park are located on the cliffs of San Isidro, at the height of Punta Chica, 20 kilometers from the capital. Today, they are included in Greater Buenos Aires. The property belonged to one of my great-aunts, Francisca Ocampo de Ocampo, and the family only lived there in the summer. This family consisted of my great-aunts (with whom we have always lived), my parents, my sisters (five) as they came into the world, and, at the beginning, my great-grandfather. He died at a very old age. I would say that the history of the villa begins with him, although he was only able to enjoy it for a short time. This great-grandfather was a great friend of Sarmiento and managed his few assets. Sarmiento did not take care of them, and my great-grandfather insisted on straightening out his household finances…”.
Victoria Ocampo was a pioneer of rationalism or functionalism in Argentina in architecture and interior decoration. In 1928, she commissioned the architect Alejandro Bustillo to build a rationalist house, a founding landmark of modern architecture in the country. This house, located in Barrio Parque, currently belongs to the National Arts Fund.
Towards 1935, after the death of their parents, the Ocampo sisters inherited Villa Ocampo and the land surrounding it in equal parts. Although some lots were sold to third parties, Victoria and her sister Angélica kept the house and the hectare of garden surrounding it for their personal use. From 1941, Victoria decided to settle there permanently. She redecorated the house, making it brighter and more austere, in an avant-garde sense for the time, which mixes modernity and tradition.
From the creation of the magazine Sur, Victoria Ocampo became a great hostess of the Southern Cone and it was precisely in Villa Ocampo where she hosted many iconic figures of 20th century culture.
Ocampo summarized in a short text, to the guests who visited both residences:
“…Rabindranath Tagore spent two months as my guest in San Isidro… After eight happy but hectic weeks (many people came to see the poet, and it was necessary to protect him and prevent him from getting too tired) I said goodbye to my host who left on an Italian ship, and it seemed to me that I had found a way to repay the writers and artists for the joys I owed them. I offered the house that Tagore left to Pedro Figari who spent that summer there. This was a beginning. Gabriela Mistral was my pampered guest for an entire autumn in Mar del Plata.
Albert Camus, Graham Greene, Roger Caillois, Julian Huxley (brother of Aldous Huxley and first Director General of UNESCO), María de Maeztu, the director of the Residencia de Señoritas in Madrid, Gabriela Mistral, Igor Stravinsky, Alfonso Reyes, Saint-John Perse (Nobel Prize for Literature in 1960), Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, José Ortega y Gasset, Saint Exupéry, Pablo Neruda, Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, Jacques Maritain, Ernest Ansermet, Jane Bathori, André Malraux, Indira Gandhi, Federico García Lorca, María Elena Walsh, Gisèle Freund, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Tita Merello and the Director General of UNESCO Matsuura stayed or spent entire days at Villa Ocampo...”
Victoria Ocampo wrote in “La belle y sus enamorados”:
“…My house has no more glory than having seen men like this (Albert Camus) sitting in a wicker chair in the sun; or by the fireplace with a cup of coffee in hand. I do not keep collections of valuable paintings, rare editions, colonial silver objects, etc. I have only collected footsteps and voices…”
Ocampo decided to donate Villa Ocampo, and his summer residence in Mar del Plata, Villa Victoria, to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, by its acronym, UNESCO. In 1973, and due to the new arrival to power of Peronism, he was persuaded to make the important donation to this world cultural organization. Ocampo looked for an international organization that was reliable and concerned about culture. This was the reason why he donated both residences to this organization. Since then, the maintenance of the house and the garden surrounding it has been the responsibility of the world organization, although it has also received private and public contributions, such as the one made in 2003 by the government of the late former president Néstor Kirchner, who agreed to finance the restoration of the house.
After Ocampo's death in 1979, UNESCO took over Villa Ocampo, but sold Villa Victoria immediately after, after auctioning off its contents, which it should not have had as a legacy. These funds ended up in Paris, in the coffers of the international organization that never gave an account of its use or credited interest on its investment.
In 1997, the Argentine government declared Villa Ocampo a National Historic Monument.
In 2003, Villa Ocampo suffered a large fire in its roofs, in the north wing of the house. With that fire, a large number of heritage objects were lost, including books, furniture and letters. The incident occurred because the old electrical installation was in poor condition and a short circuit occurred in the wooden ceilings of the house. Faced with this event, UNESCO created an entity destined to restore Villa Ocampo, called the Villa Ocampo Project.
During the restoration process, which culminated in 2013, the building, the garden and the historical collections (furniture, works of art, library and archive) were fully restored, while the facilities were modernized, incorporating infrastructure and equipment essential to receive visits from the general public and hold cultural events.
Once the first stage of the restoration was completed, Villa Ocampo opened its doors to the public in 2005, with the inauguration of the ground floor. The opening of the first floor took place in April 2008.
Villa Ocampo functions as a house-museum open to the public and as a laboratory of ideas. Guided tours of the historical site and various activities such as dialogues, debates and exhibitions are held there. According to its official website, Villa Ocampo functions as a UNESCO Antenna, and its main purpose is to contribute to the exchange of knowledge, promote the preservation of heritage, as well as stimulate creativity and diversity, and spread the legacy and memory of Victoria Ocampo.
References:
https://www.sanignaciodeloyola.org.ar/
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iglesia_de_San_Ignacio_(Buenos_Aires)
https://web.archive.org/web/20090315171400/http://www.sanignaciodeloyola.org.ar/nuestraiglesia.asp#
https://www.curiosamonserrat.com.ar/iglesia/ignacio.html
http://www.diasdehistoria.com.ar/content/restos-del-siglo-xvii-bajo-las-veredas-de-san-ignacio
https://web.archive.org/web/20160419050724/http://www.revistacontratiempo.com.ar/sanignacio.htm
06/2024
