Pirámide de Mayo
In 1912, after having undergone many modifications, it was moved 63 metres (68.9 yards) to the east, with the idea that a much larger monument would eventually be constructed around it.
On April 5, 1811, with the approval of the Buenos Aires Cabildo, it was decided that the program of festivities commemorating the first anniversary of the Revolución de Mayo would include the construction of a pyramid.
Some speculate that it was an attempt to emulate the pyramids carved into the pillars of Paris' Porte Saint-Denis, to which the Pirámide de Mayo bears some resemblance.
At the insistence of architect Pedro Vicente Cañete and Juan Gaspar Hernández, professor of sculpture at the University of Valladolid, it was decided that the monument would be constructed entirely out of solid materials, including 500 bricks, rather than out of wood, as had been planned originally.
The pyramid was festooned with the banners of various illustrious regiments that had formed the garrison of Buenos Aires, including the patricians, highlanders, mulattoes and blacks, gunners, hussars, and grenadiers.
Although Cañete's original plans were lost, studies later determined that the Pyramid had been left hollow, rather than filled with masonry, in order to save time.
In 1826 President Bernardino Rivadavia announced plans to erect a monument to the Revolución de Mayo which would consist of a magnificent bronze fountain "in place of what exists today".
Consequently, they were replaced with four Carrara marble statues which had originally been located on the first floor of the Banco Provincia on Calle San Martín.
In 1972 they were installed in the old Plazoleta de San Francisco, at the intersection of Calles Defensa and Alsina, 150 metres from the modern Pyramid.
Alvear had considered demolishing the Pyramid and erecting a more grandiose monument in its place, but in order to do so, required the permission of the deliberative council in charge of the project.
The council consulted the opinion of various distinguished citizens, including ex-presidents Bartolomé Mitre, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, and Nicolás Avellaneda.
Mitre saw no reason to preserve the monument, because after its many renovations and additions it was no longer, in an authentic sense, the original Pyramid erected following the Revolution.
In 1906, with a few years until the centenary of the May Revolution, plans were put forward for a new monument that would completely contain the Pyramid, which consequently had to be relocated to the center of the Plaza de Mayo.
Many remained hopeful that the Pyramid would be restored to its historical origins, including the return of the steps and railing, and the removal of the "shell of stucco and inappropriate figures".
These names, unknown to most who visit the Pyramid, were added to the monument in 1891 during the presidency of Carlos Pellegrini, in recognition of the first two military officers to lose their lives in the cause of Argentine independence: The news of these two casualties was met with shock, in response to which the government junta resolved to record the officers' names in bronze.
