| What makes it historical? |
For 15 years after Córdoba’s founding in 1573, local government officials met in private homes to discuss city business. Then, in 1588, a small adobe structure gave them a central place to meet, but it was not structurally sound! To fix this, architect Alonso de Encinas designed a larger cabildo to house the alcalde’s office, living quarters, and a jail, completed in 1610!
By 1749, even this wasn’t too much, and Alcalde José Moyano Oscariz wanted a larger building. However, it took almost forty years before anyone was able to put serious effort into this project! During that time, the Jesuits were kicked out of South America, and the city government of Córdoba came under the leadership of th Marqués de Sobre Monte. Under his direction, it only took three years from 1783 until 1786 to complete this much grander cabildo cabuilding with two courtyards and ten exhibition halls!
This was good enough for the city government for just over a hundred years, until they moved to another building and repurposed this cabildo, notorious in the 1970s as a detention center for political prisoners, one of 300, during the Dirty War and age of Desaparecidos. Today, it is a city museum, store, and the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture! |
