Moorish Arch
The arch in Leguía Avenue
Map
MaterialCement and majolica
Height29 metres
Beginning dateJuly 10, 1923
Completion dateJuly 17, 1924
Dismantled date1939

The Moorish Arch, also called the Friendship Arch or Spanish Arch, was a triumphal arch installed at the beginning of Leguía Avenue (today Arequipa Avenue) in Lima, Peru. It was made in a neo-Moorish style, inaugurated in 1924 as part of the Centennial of the Independence of Peru and demolished in 1939.

Overview

The arch was located on the first block of Avenida Leguía,[1] intersection with the Avenida 28 de Julio, in the Santa Beatriz [es] neighbourhood; It had a height of 29 meters. It was made of cement with majolica decorations in the shape of stars and crescents, as well as two minarets.[2]

History

The arch, circa 1924.

In 1921, during the government of Augusto B. Leguía, the Centennial of the Independence of Peru was celebrated and many colonies of foreign residents decided to grant gifts in the form of monuments to the Peruvian State. The gift of the Spanish colony was the Friendship Arch,[3][4][5] a Moorish-style construction whose author is unknown. The original plans, deposited in Madrid, were lost due to the Spanish Civil War.[2]

Construction began on its building on July 10, 1923, and it was delivered to the city of Lima on July 17, 1924.[6] The inauguration ceremony was lavish, with the presence of President Augusto B. Leguía, the mayor of Lima Pedro Rada y Gamio, Gonzalo de Ojeda y Brooke [es], as representative of the Spanish government, and Arias Carraseno, representing the Spanish colony.[2]

In 1938, President Óscar R. Benavides and his Minister of Development, Héctor Boza, ordered the demolition of the monument, alluding to traffic problems that it caused, and to widen Arequipa Avenue. The destruction with dynamite the following year caused unrest in the Spanish community, and some even interpreted Benavides' order as an act of political revenge against former President Leguía.

At the end of 2015, the National Association of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) warned of the destruction of the footings of the remains of the Arch by the Brazilian construction company OAS, which was carrying out construction work on an overpass in the July 28 Avenue. The lawsuit filed by ICOMOS also reached the Municipality of Lima and the Ministry of Culture.[7][8][9]

New Arch

The new arch in Surco.

Carlos Dargent [es], a politician from Lima, carried out initiatives for its reconstruction in the original location on Arequipa Avenue when he was a councilor of the Municipality of Lima. When his motion was rejected, he relocated his proposal to the exit of the Vía Expresa, then to the Higuereta roundabout. They offered to reinstall it on Argentina Avenue [es], but he considered that it was not a good option. Years later, when he was mayor of the Santiago de Surco district, he was able to carry out the work, with the financing of various Spanish companies.[2]

On September 25, 2001, Mayor Dargent and the Spanish colony, with the presence of the King and Queen of Spain, inaugurated the new Friendship Arch, a faithful copy of its predecessor, located in the María Graña Ottone Friendship Park, in the intersection of Alfredo Benavides [es] and Caminos del Inca [es] avenues.[2][9][10]

See also

References

  1. ^ Flores Ledesma, María (2011). "Mármol y nación: monumentos urbanos en el centenario de la independencia del Perú 1921 (1921-1924)". TRIM: revista de investigación multidisciplinar (3): 133–147. ISSN 2173-8947.
  2. ^ a b c d e "El arco resurrecto". La República. 2001-10-06.
  3. ^ Basadre Grohmann, Jorge (1998). Historia de la República del Perú (1822-1933) (in Spanish) (8th ed.). La República / Universidad Ricardo Palma. p. 2900.
  4. ^ Contreras, Carlos; Cueto, Marcos (2016). Historia del Perú republicano (in Spanish). Vol. Tomo 6: Oncenio de Leguía. La Patria Nueva y la crisis mundial (1919-1933). Lima: Editorial Septiembre. p. 15. ISBN 978-612-308-174-4.
  5. ^ Historia visual del Perú (in Spanish). Lima: El Comercio. 2004. p. 192. ISBN 9972021203.
  6. ^ Casalino Sen, Carlota (2017). Centenario: las celebraciones de la Independencia 1921-1924 (PDF) (in Spanish). Lima: Metropolitan Municipality of Lima. pp. 58–59. ISBN 9789972726156. OCLC 1126541508.
  7. ^ "Bypass 28 de Julio: denuncian a OAS por demolición de restos de arco morisco". América Noticias. 2015-11-01.
  8. ^ Castro, Raúl (2015-11-04). "'Bypaseando' el bicentenario". El Comercio.
  9. ^ a b Mathews, Daniel (2015-11-27). "La destrucción de los restos del Arco Morisco de la Avenida Arequipa". La Mula.
  10. ^ Arco de la Amistad (in Spanish). Municipalidad de Santiago de Surco. 2003.

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