Obelisk

If one photo says “I’m in Buenos Aires,” this is it: a 67-meter white spire at the intersection of Avenida 9 de Julio and Corrientes. Today nobody can picture the city without the Obelisk, but when it was inaugurated in 1936, plenty of porteños, as the people of Buenos Aires are called, didn’t like it one bit, and three years later they came close to tearing it down.

A race against the clock

The year 1936 marked four hundred years since the first founding of Buenos Aires, by the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Mendoza. To commemorate it, the mayor, Mariano de Vedia y Mitre, commissioned a monument from the architect Alberto Prebisch, who also designed the Gran Rex theater, a short walk down Corrientes. Prebisch chose the simplest form possible: an obelisk of reinforced concrete, hollow inside.

Work began on March 20 and the monument was inaugurated on May 23. According to the city government’s official account, the structure went up in 31 days, with 157 workers, and a fast-setting cement was used to save time. It stands 67.5 meters tall, each side of the base measures 6.8 meters, and it has a single door, on the west side, facing Corrientes. Subway tunnels run underneath, and the foundations were designed to spread the weight without damaging them.

The church that came before

For two centuries this corner was home to a church, San Nicolás de Bari, built around 1720. It’s the one that gave the neighborhood its name. In the early 1930s, when the Diagonal Norte was opened and Corrientes was widened, it was demolished, and the parish moved to Avenida Santa Fe.

It was from its tower that the Argentine flag had been raised in the city for the first time. That’s why the Obelisk commemorates not one date but four, one on each face, in Roman numerals. Walk around it.

At the base there’s also a sonnet dedicated to the monument by the poet Baldomero Fernández Moreno. The story goes that he wrote it on a napkin during a dinner in Prebisch’s honor.

The Obelisk that almost didn’t grow old

Critics called it ugly, expensive and out of keeping with the city’s style, and some architects were wary of its being hollow and made of concrete rather than solid stone. One night in June 1938, slabs of the Córdoba stone that clad it came loose and fell onto the stands set up for an official ceremony. A year later, the city council voted 23 to 3 to demolish it, on aesthetic, economic and safety grounds. President Roberto Ortiz questioned the decision, and the mayor, Arturo Goyeneche, vetoed it.

Where everything gets celebrated

The square around it, Plaza de la República, became the place people head when something happens. After Argentina’s World Cup wins in 1978, 1986 and 2022, the 9 de Julio filled with flags and honking horns, with the Obelisk at the center. Soccer fans come here too when their club wins a championship, and marches, concerts and vigils start or end here.

The monument itself has carried messages. In 1975 it was fitted with a revolving ring bearing the slogan “El silencio es salud” (“Silence is health”): it was presented as a campaign against honking, and many people read it as a call to keep quiet in harsh political times. On December 1, 2005, World AIDS Day, it woke up sheathed in a giant pink condom. And in 2015 the artist Leandro Erlich made its tip vanish with an optical illusion.

Going up to the top

For decades, the only way to the tip was a 206-rung vertical ladder, narrow and reserved for maintenance. Since 2025 there’s been a viewpoint open to the public: a small elevator, with one glass side so you can see the hollow interior, rises to about 55 meters, and a spiral staircase leads up to the four windows at the tip, one for each point of the compass.

Planning your visit

• Twenty minutes is enough to see it, read the faces and take the photo. If you go up, add half an hour.
• Viewpoint hours and tickets change, so check them on the City’s tourism website (in Spanish). According to the city, the viewpoint isn’t wheelchair accessible.
• The 9 de Julio is very wide: cross at the crosswalk and with the light, even if it takes several stages.
• It’s a crowded corner: keep your phone and wallet close, and if there’s a celebration or a march, watch from the edge.
• The Teatro Colón is a few blocks along the 9 de Julio, and the Palacio Barolo is on Avenida de Mayo.

Last checked October 2026.