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[[File:Manzana de las Luces vista desde arriba.jpg|thumb|220px|The Illuminated Block]][[File:Iglesia San Ignacio de Loyola, Buenos Aires.jpg|thumb|220px|Parish of St. Ignatius of Loyola]]
[[File:Manzana de las Luces vista aérea patio interior.jpg|thumb|220px|Patio]]
The '''Illuminated Block''' ({{langx|es|Manzana de las Luces}}) is a historical landmark in the [[Monserrat, Buenos Aires|Monserrat]] neighbourhood of [[Buenos Aires]], [[Argentina]].

==History==
The [[Society of Jesus]] arrived in the newly founded village of ''Buenos Ayres'' in 1608, establishing their first mission on a 2 hectare (5 acre) lot which had earlier been destined by Spanish [[conquistador]] [[Juan de Garay]] for the future town square. The Jesuits' 1661 sale of the property (which would ultimately become the [[Plaza de Mayo]]) and a gift of an adjacent lot by Isabel de Carvajal allowed the order to build a new, largely self-reliant mission. Work began in 1686 on the [[Saint Ignatius Church (Buenos Aires)|Saint Ignatius Church]], a [[baroque architecture|baroque]] structure completed in 1722, and the adjoining College of St. Ignatius was designed by local architect Juan Kraus and built between 1710 and 1729. Becoming the only academy in colonial Buenos Aires to provide a [[Classical education movement|classical education]], and the property possessed the city's finest laboratories, museum and library. The center housed the Office of the Advocate General of the Missions (which oversaw the order's numerous, lucrative [[Indian Reductions]]), as well as a pharmacy (the city's first) opened and operated by an English Jesuit, Father [[Thomas Falkner]].<ref name=tour>{{Cite web |url=http://www.inargentinatourism.com.ar/en/capital_federal/tourism_argentina_block_of_lights_capital_federal.php |title=Argentina Tourism: Illuminated Block |access-date=2009-07-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091025153828/http://www.inargentinatourism.com.ar/en/capital_federal/tourism_argentina_block_of_lights_capital_federal.php |archive-date=2009-10-25 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The 1767 [[suppression of the Society of Jesus]] led to the mission's closure, however, as well as an associated one housing a hospital, in the nearby [[San Telmo, Buenos Aires|San Telmo]] district. The academy was closed only temporarily, and was converted in 1772 into the Royal College of San Carlos. The temple was usurped and converted into a [[cathedral]] in 1775, though Father Falkner's pharmacy formed the basis for Viceroy [[Juan José de Vértiz y Salcedo|Juan José de Vértiz]]'s Medical Court of 1780 - the first school of medicine in what is today Argentina.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fmed.uba.ar/facultad/resena/historia/1780.htm |title=University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine: History |access-date=2009-07-23 |language=es |archive-date=2017-09-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905114700/http://www.fmed.uba.ar/facultad/resena/historia/1780.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Viceroy Vértiz also established the city's first printing press at the site, in 1780, as well as an orphanage funded by sales of the facility's printed material.<ref name=tour/>

The center later had an anecdotal role in the [[Argentine War of Independence]]. The [[Regiment of Patricians]] was briefly headquartered in 1811 at the college, where the regiment staged a failed mutiny against their commander, General [[Manuel Belgrano]]. A network of five tunnels intersecting under the former mission (believed to have been built to guarantee the flow of supplies in the event of a siege, and to facilitate smuggling in peacetime) helped safeguard ammunitions during much of the war.<ref name=tour/> The provisional government organized from the [[May Revolution]] of 1810, the [[Primera Junta|First Assembly]], opened a public library in 1812, and following the War of Independence, Governor [[Martín Rodríguez (politician)|Martín Rodríguez]] inaugurated the [[University of Buenos Aires]] and the General Archive, in 1821. A few days later, the city's leading newspaper, ''El Argos'', described the area as the "Illuminated Block" in a September 1, 1821, editorial.<ref name=scarecrow>''Historical Dictionary of Argentina''. London: Scarecrow Press, 1978.</ref>

Governor Rodríguez also established the Provincial Legislature and the [[Bank of the Province of Buenos Aires]] at the site, in 1822, as well as the city's first [[Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum|natural sciences museum]] (later housed in the nearby [[Santo Domingo convent]]). A secondary school established in 1817 in the Illuminated Block by [[Juan Martín de Pueyrredón]] eventually became the [[Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires|Buenos Aires National College]], one of the nation's most prestigious [[university-preparatory school]]s, in 1863.<ref name=scarecrow/>

The Provincial Legislature was used as the [[Argentine National Congress]] during the short-lived [[Bernardino Rivadavia|First Republic]] (1826–27), and was again used as such from 1862 to 1864, while newer facilities were built nearby. The [[Buenos Aires City Legislature]] also met at the site from 1894 to 1931, when its current building was completed. The old Provincial Legislature's final use was as the University of Buenos Aires School of Architecture (until 1972).<ref name=scarecrow/>

The Illuminated Block was declared a [[List of National Historic Monuments of Argentina|National Historic Monument]], in 1942, and was (with three of the catacombs) extensively restored, in 1983.<ref name=tour/>

==See also==
{{Portal|Argentina}}
* [[List of Jesuit sites]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Coord|34|36|38|S|58|22|28|W|display=title}}
{{Buenos Aires landmarks}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Illuminated block}}
[[Category:Jesuit education]]
[[Category:Jesuit history in South America]]
[[Category:National Historic Monuments of Argentina]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Buenos Aires]]
[[Category:Colonial Argentina]]
[[Category:Spanish Colonial architecture in Argentina]]

Illuminated Block - Revision history

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