Plaza de Mayo is the oldest and most historically significant public square in Buenos Aires, the site of the city’s founding and nearly every major event in Argentine political history since the 1810 May Revolution that led to independence from Spain. It remains the symbolic center of national political life today.
The plaza is ringed by landmark buildings: the pink-hued Casa Rosada (presidential palace), the Buenos Aires Cabildo, the Metropolitan Cathedral, and the Banco de la Nación Argentina. At its center stands the Pirámide de Mayo, the city’s oldest national monument. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo still march around the pyramid every Thursday afternoon in memory of those disappeared during Argentina’s military dictatorship.
Free guided walking tours of the plaza depart regularly from the city tourism office, and the surrounding streets connect easily to the pedestrian shopping of Calle Florida and the historic San Telmo neighborhood.