Miraflores Palace
Miraflores Palace
Main page
2051016

Miraflores Palace

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Miraflores Palace

The Miraflores Palace (Spanish: Palacio de Miraflores) is the official dispatch and head office of the President of Venezuela. It is located on Urdaneta Avenue, Libertador Bolivarian Municipality in Caracas.

Construction on the building started on 27 April 1884, under the direction of Giuseppe Orsi, intended as the family residence of Joaquin Crespo. Also participating: painter Julián Oñate, Juan Bautista Sales and his team of sculptors, decorators, wood carvers, builders - who erected the European-style Miraflores Palace. To decorate it, furniture was imported from Barcelona, Spain; a bronze rosette was commissioned from the Marrera foundry and 24 bronze lamps were ordered from Requena brothers at San Juan de los Morros, Guárico state. In 1911, the national administration acquired the property from General Félix Galavis at a cost of five hundred thousand bolívares, and Miraflores Palace became the official presidential residence and office.

After many modifications, the current palace presents fountains encompassed by corridors and halls, such as the Peruvian Sun Hall, decorated with gold donated by the government of Peru; the Joaquín Crespo Hall, with its four gigantic rock-crystal mirrors; Vargas Swamp, which commemorates the Battle of Boyacá, in Colombia; the Ambassador Hall, where diplomats are received; and Ayacucho Hall, in honor of Marshall Antonio José de Sucre and the battle in which he starred.

Miraflores Palace served as presidential residence of Cipriano Castro and then Juan Vicente Gómez, who occupied it until 1913. From 1914 to 1922, it functioned as office to the provisional administration of Victorino Márquez Bustillos. In 1923, Miraflores witnessed the murder [es] of Vice-president Juan Crisóstomo Gómez, brother of President Juan Vicente Gómez. From 1931 to 1935, the palace was uninhabited, guarded by the army. During the governments of Eleazar López Contreras and Isaías Medina Angarita, the presidential office was modified. In 1945, Rómulo Betancourt became the first president who identified the seat of government as Miraflores Palace, replacing the name Federal Palace.

In the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, architect Luis Malaussena introduced radical changes inside the palace, eliminating part of Crespo's era decoration. The succeeding administrations made some additions: a Japanese garden, an administration building, the Ayacucho Hall, and the Bicentennial square. In the first period of Rafael Caldera (1969–1974), construction of the Administrative Building began. In February 1979, the palace was declared a National Historical Monument. During the government of Luis Herrera Campins (1979–1984), the Administrative Building and the Bicentennial square were finished. In the mid 1980s, the area for the Council of Ministers was extended. During the 1990s and 2000s, restoration of the original aspects of the palace began. Miraflores has sometimes been the residence of the president of Venezuela, although La Casona is the actual official residence. In February 2007, the Simón Bolívar Press Room opened.

With a volume of documents of nearly 15 million pages, the Miraflores Historical Archive has the mission to preserve the files of Venezuelan presidents. This process began in 1959, when Secretary of Presidency Ramón José Velásquez, undertook the rescue and recovery of files corresponding to the governments of Cipriano Castro (1899–1908) and Juan Vicente Gómez (1908–1935), located in the basement of Presidential Guard. This action marked the beginning of the processes of recovery and preservation of documentary information generated by the presidency.[citation needed] In 1979, Nora Bustamante Luciani was appointed as director of the archive. Throughout her tenure, which terminated in 1995, Bustamante worked on the first indices of the archive's Bulletin. She published two volumes as a guide to the first one hundred issues. The documentary fund filed documents from 1899 until 1983. The different document types that comprise the fund, originated a rating system divided into chronological sections.[citation needed]

Ayacucho is mainly used for official events and addresses to the nation. Is conformed by wood walls, with a capacity for 200 to 250 people located in front of a podium. The room is used to receive heads of state and government and for special occasions such as the recognition with the Order of the Liberator to personalities of politics, culture and society; award only given by presidential decree. In Ayacucho room emphasizes a painting of Simón Bolívar, located behind the desk where the President addresses the country via radio, television, and the internet. The room was named in honor to the battle of Ayacucho.

It is one of the largest rooms of the palace, and is named in honor of the battle won by Simón Bolívar on 7 August 1819, after which most of the Colombian territory was freed. It was built in the early 1960s, becoming a space for meetings and lunch in honor to national and international personalities. The decoration of the room is formed by a parquetry floor and wood ceilings and baseboards.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.