Location: 69 mi (110 km) North of Gualeguaychú, Entre Ríos Province Map
Tel. (03442) 432 620
Open: 6am- 7pm Mon- Fri
9am- 6pm Sat & Sun
Official site
Palacio San José is located 69 mi (110 km) North of Gualeguaychú,
Entre Ríos Province in Argentina. Palacio San Jose or San Jose
Palace is one of the most important historical buildings in the
country. It was constructed 23 km (14 mi) from the city of
Conception del Uruguay, Entre Rios province of Argentina. It was
designed by architects Jacinto Dellepiane Pedro Fossati and
constructed between 1848 and 1858. It served as a personal residence
of Justo Jose de Urquiza, President of the Argentine Confederation
between 1854 and 1860. Like many leaders in Latin America Justo Jose
de Urquiza reached the top ranks in politics by serving in the army
and reaching the rank of a general. He was widely described as a
caudillo, Argentinian and Latin American term for a strongman or a
war chief.
Palacio San Jose architectural style combines
Italian and Argentine criollo architectural styles. Today it is
converted into the National Museum of Justo Jose de Urquiza. Its
architects jacinto Dellepiane and Pedro Fossati was of Italian
ancestry so he used some of the traditions of his native country to
design this marvelous building. The ground floor of the San Jose
Palace is taken by 38 spacious rooms, which are encircle two inner
courtyards. Additionally residence contained utility rooms, a
chapel, stables, a grocery store, a dovecote for 650 birds and even
artificial lake measuring 20,000 square meters. The lake of Palacio
San Jose was used to host the annual sailing regatta.
The
main facade of Palacio San Jose is framed by two symmetrical towers
decorated with carved frieze. Palace interior is decorated with
numerous frescoes and painting which depict scenes from the battles
of General Urquiza. They belong to a hand of Uruguayan artist Juan
Manuel Blanes.
Palacio San Jose has its grim pages in its
history. Justo Jose de Urquiza was murdered here by his political
opponents. In the luxurious office of the president and a general
you can still see his bloody prints of his palms as he attempted to
keep his posture. Some of the local legends claim that the spirit
still haunts this residence. Many claim to hear and see full body
apparition of president's ghost.
The San José Palace, today the Justo José de Urquiza National Museum,
is located in the Molino district of the Uruguay department of the
province of Entre Ríos, between the towns of Herrera and Caseros, about
30 km west of Concepción del Uruguay
Its original owner baptized
it Posta San José, but due to its exquisiteness at the time of its
construction, the local residents and visitors soon began to call it
Palacio San José. It was originally located on a 2,500-hectare estate,
of which 20 were destined for parks, gardens and a huge fifth of fruit
trees, in the middle of which was the main house, built in Italian
Renaissance style.
The work required twelve years of work,
between 1848 and 1860, and was initially entrusted to the Italian
architect Jacinto Dellepiane, who abandoned the work shortly after it
began. Given this circumstance, the work was entrusted to the architect
Pietro Fossati, who was assisted by his sculptor's brother by
profession. The work was carried out by carvers, blacksmiths, painters
and gardeners, all brought from abroad especially for this construction.
The main floor has 38 large rooms, arranged around two beautiful
patios. It also has service units, a chapel, garages, a grocery store
(general store), a dovecote that could house up to 650 pigeons and even
an artificial lake of about 20,000 m² where light sailboats sailed and
on the side of which lavish parties.
Its front, framed by two
symmetrical towers located at the corners, is adorned with a frieze with
classical motifs and a railing that has the provincial coat of arms in
its center. This gives way to the Patio de Honor, surrounded by a wide
gallery with a front of arches that sit on Tuscan-style columns, in
which the reception rooms, desks, the billiard room, dining rooms and
bedrooms for the family of the general and his illustrious visitors.
The second courtyard, called Patio del Parral, is bordered by a
wrought iron grapevine and is similar to the previous one. In it were
the rooms for visitors of lower category.
There is a third patio, in
the quiet part of the building, where the dependencies and rooms for the
service personnel were located.
The interior of the Palace was
decorated with good taste and elegance, with paintings and murals such
as those of the Uruguayan artist Juan Manuel Blanes, who painted a
series of battles in which the general participated.
In its
gardens there are busts of famous men such as Napoleon, Hernán Cortés,
Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, and sculptures by León Sola, from
Entre Ríos, who studied in Italy, financed by General Urquiza.
It
should be noted that the San José Palace had running water services
since 1856, which still work today, whose intake was in the Gualeguaychú
River, 2 km away from the place. This type of service was known in
Buenos Aires only from 1870.
Historical events for the nascent
Argentine Republic took place in this magnificent construction, and
General Urquiza, assassinated on April 11, 1870, lived and also died
there. The bedroom where the assassination occurred was later
transformed by his wife into an oratory. On August 24, 1994, in the
Palace park, the conventionalists swore a new Argentine National
Constitution.
The National State declared the San José Palace a
National Historical Museum through Law 12,261, of August 30, 1935. Then
the "Posta de San José" restaurant was built on the adjoining land, with
the necessary dimensions to receive the large tourist contingents who
visit the place to this day.
Towards the end of 1940, Urquiza began the construction of his
residence, on a large piece of land near the Gualeguaychú River, west of
Concepción del Uruguay, Entre Ríos.
Construction began in 1848,
being the basis of what would end up being, with the intervention of
Jacinto Dellepiane and Pedro Fossati later, the San José Palace, the
main room of Justo José de Urquiza, family residence and fundamental
political reference until 1960. .
The architecture of this time,
called postcolonial, was characterized by its simple. The design was
based on a square courtyard cloister around which the main rooms were
arranged, with a gallery connecting inside and outside. The hallway
constituted the entrance marked by a large and solid door, and led to
the central patio and the two most important rooms of the house: the
Living Room and the Desk.
This stage was built with brick walls
set in mud, flat roofs, canvas ceilings, wooden openings protected by
iron and ceramic floors. The construction of this first stage was
carried out with brick walls set in mud, with flat slab roofs, canvas
ceilings in the rooms, openings made up of wooden doors and windows,
protected with iron bars and ceramic tile floors. .
This elegant
volumetry distinguished the residence from afar. Its two towers rise
from the ends of the house, emphasizing the symmetry of the whole.
The first construction is oriented to the east towards the road with
Concepción del Uruguay. It is made up of seven large arcades, around the
“Patio de Honor”, which is open to fifteen of the nineteen rooms that
make it up, connected internally, and this main body corresponds to the
life of the family.
1853-1856: Second Stage
In 1853, the builder and Master of Works
Don Jacinto Dellepiane took charge of continuing the construction for
three years.
Dellepiane enlarged the house in such a way that it
would be functional for the daily life of the family and for Urquiza's
political role. Unlike the construction of the first, the walls built by
Dellepiane use lime.
The second patio became the core of the
service rooms and generated an interior patio similar to the dimensions
of the first patio with a quadrangular floor plan.
Continuing
with the existing plot, it created an interior patio with dimensions
similar to those of the first patio with a quadrangular floor plan
closed by two symmetrical blocks of rooms on each side.
The new
courtyard had a bath room with three independent sectors: two of them
for two latrines and the third housed the carbide gas production machine
that lit the house.
The second body, around the "Patio del
Parral" is made up of nineteen rooms, and is intended for service
personnel: pantry, kitchen, room for the carbide gas machine; latrines,
and the administration room of the stay.
1857-1860: Third stage
In 1857 the architect Pedro Fossati, an
Italian born in 1827 and graduated from the Milan Polytechnic, takes
charge of constructing buildings in Concepción del Uruguay and begins
work in San Jose reformulating the chapel, changing its plan to
octagonal and symmetrical for a better order of the spaces.
The
rooms adjoining the chapel were used to store elements of worship and
religious clothing. They were also used as a confessional and as a
baptistery and sacristy.
In the rear gardens and on the north
side is the Chapel of San José, for which Urquiza obtained a license
from the Vatican. Its ground plan is octagonal and the wall paintings on
the walls and the central vault are the work of the Uruguayan painter
Juan Manuel Blanes.
Rooms
hall of mirrors
the room of mirrors the land that was
made with an estimated number of 100 mirrors of French origin and a
handicraft made of white pine wood of imported material. Who carried out
this work was the architect Jacinto Dellepiane, the architect Pietro
Fossati and Tomas Benvenuto also participated.
This room had a
grand piano of German origin, which was used by his daughter Lola. Two
paintings are exhibited, one of the family made by Francisco Artigue and
the other made in 1854 by the French painter Amadeo Gras is where
General Urquiza appears.
This room was used for the meetings that
General Urquiza held with his guests, who generally used board games.
This room consisted of two spaces, one of them used by the general, and
the other space was used by and for the women where they carried out
sewing and embroidery tasks. It also had a lantern in front of it that
reflected in the mirrors and gave off lights of 7 colors1
Chapel
The chapel was a public oratory, accepted by the Vatican in 1851,
beginning its construction in 1856 and blessed on March 19, 1859. Work
entrusted to the Italian architect Pedro Fosatti and detailed by
Spaniards José Clusellas and Pedro García; its original shape was
hexagonal. Painted by the Uruguayan Juan Manuel Blanes, who leaves his
signature above the pillars, with angels holding cloths with the letters
of his last name, inside this small chapel there are two pulpits, which
only the Urquiza family could access. Curiously, on both sides of the
altar of the oratory, the symbols of Freemasonry are painted. This
detail is very unusual in temples, chapels and oratories for prayer,
faith and the Catholic religion. Urquiza was an atheist and agreed to
build this oratory at the request of the ranch staff.
political
desk
It was a male-style environment, —since it was intended only for
men—, where political issues were discussed, such as the need to
organize the country. This place was very important for Argentine
history since the first National Constitution of 1853 was written there.
There are several representative objects of the time, some of them are:
A safe, from the house of Fichet in Paris.
Portuguese style
chairs.
The bust of Urquiza, made of copper.
A portrait of
Urquiza, made by Juan Manuel Blanes in 1869.
The desk, made in the
19th century.
A symbolic figurative painting of the Constitution,
called Allegory of the Statement (first painting delivered by J. M.
Blanes to Urquiza).