Buenos Aires has an impressive history and knowing a bit more about it will help you even more to enjoy all the sights and monuments you will likely visit during the best trips to Argentina.
The city of Buenos Aires was first established as Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre(literally "City of Our Lady Saint Mary of the Fair Winds") after Our Lady of Bonaria (Patroness Saint of Sardinia) on 2 February 1536 by a Spanish expedition led by Pedro de Mendoza. The settlement founded by Mendoza was located in what is today the San Telmo district of Buenos Aires, south of the city center. The nearby Lezama Park in La Boca is often seen as the place where Pedro de Mendoza first landed and apart from a monument houses the worthwhile Museum of History in the former Lezama family mansion.
Attacks by natives, disease and hunger drove the original settlers away upriver towards what is now Paraguay and only in 1580 was Buenos Aires founded permanently. Even then, it was still an outpost in the Spanish empire and with gold and silver from Peru being transported towards Spain overland via Panama, the city inhabitants were forced to live from smuggling which lead to strained relations with Spain. During the run up to independence from Spain, English forces saw their opportunity and invaded Buenos Aires twice and even managed to hold the city for a short period in 1806.
When Independence was finally complete in 1816, conflict continued almost directly though this time internally between a rapid succession of different dictators and between the city and the surrounding provinces. Only towards the end of the 19th century and especially with the invention of the cool ship that could bring Argentine beef unspoiled to Europe, did Buenos Aires enter its period of greatest riches. You will notice this next time you stand on the impressive 9th of July avenue on one of the best trips to Argentina and realize that for its creation the width of a city block was razed over it’s entire length destroying many historical buildings just to make the city more like fashionable Paris.
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