Whilst in Buenos Aires I learned of a story that truly showed me, what someone with a broken heart is willing to do to exact revenge.
The story starts with the Anchorena family, an aristocratic family in Buenos Aires. One of the sons of the family had fallen in love with Corina Kavanagh, a woman of considerable wealth, but from ‘new money’. The Matriarch of the Anchorena family, Mercedes, disapproved of this match and so sent her son to Europe to split split them up. The Anchorena family lived with vast wealth, and so one of their sons being engaged to someone who wasn’t from an aristocratic background wasn’t acceptable for Marcedes.
The Anchorenas had Plaza San Martin as their private grounds at the time. The family was closely allied to the Catholic Church and had built the church (Basilica del Santisimo Sacramento) close to the Plaza. It was said that one Mercedes biggest pleasures came from being able to see the church she had built from inside her house at San Martin Palace.
Kavanagh never forgave Mercedes and thus devised a plan for revenge. When Mercedes went on holiday, Cornina brought the plot of land between Plaza San Martin and Basilica del Santisimo Sacramento. She commissioned architects to build a building with the only specifications being it block the view of the church from Plaza San Martin and San Martin Palace.
The building was constructed in just 14 months and has become a key architectural feature of Buenos Aires. The Kavanagh Building has 33 floors and 105 luxury apartments, all of which have their own unique layout. It was a really unique and groundbreaking building for its time, being the tallest reinforced concrete building in South America. And it completely blocked the view of Mercedes’ beloved church.
The only place from where you can get a good view of Basilica del Santisimo Sacramento is the alley adjacent to the Kavanagh Building Tower, which is ironically called Corina Kavanagh Street. Corina Kavanagh’s revenge was complete and she lived there for many years in an apartment occupying the entire 14th floor.
Forrester Word 