One of the most traditional and old clubs of remove of the Tigerhe italian boaters, is about to be declared a National Historic Monument. The club – located on the banks of the Tigre river, a few meters from the Luján river – has had its sports and operational headquarters, for 113 years now, located in a magnificent Venetian-style palace. This building – say the experts – is the only construction of this type found in the entire Latin America and for this reason, a year ago, the Board of Directors of the club presented to the National Commission of Monuments, Places and Historical Assets of the Ministry of Culture of the Nation the request for the property and its buildings to be declared a “National Historical Monument”.
The foundation of the club was far away and long ago. The anecdote repeated over and over again by the partners in the institution’s barbecue area, shows that. back in 1909, Luis Saboya, Duke of Abruzzi, visited Argentina. Among the numerous gifts in his honor, he was lucky to preside over a regatta organized on the Luján River. During the competition the aristocrat noticed the absence of rowers from the Italian community. Thus, in the final speeches, he invited the community to be more active and have a club that represented them. Said and done, on January 1, 1910 the Canottieri Italiani Club was established and after just three months, the brand new institution already had 780 active members. Decades later, at its peak it exceeded 3,000 members.
But changes in family social customs made things change. “We currently integrate the club between 450 and five hundred members”, Tomás Gally, who joined the institution a couple of years ago, told PROFILE, but who today is one of those responsible for organizing many of its activities. According to Gally, these numbers of contributors, the quotas and the high maintenance costs of sports venues and activities explain a good part of the difficulties that these essential institutions experience to finance themselves and to be able to face restorations and building improvements that allow them to have a better life. cultural and social.
Palace. The building that is today the sports headquarters is a true Venetian Gothic palace, with a unique architectural design in all of Latin America. It was designed by the Italian architect Gaetano Moretti and its construction was carried out between 1921 and 1928. Of course, the interior and exterior decoration maintained the artistic line and the building has two very important frescoes and tall stained glass windows that in the evenings project a light dreamlike on the wide central wooden staircase. The stained glass windows, which are currently being restored, were made by the masters of Casa Nova, a recognized atelier from the beginning of the last century.
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Although in the Canottieri there are various sports options. The few members who are not fond of the river choose to combine the enjoyment of the venue with soccer, a gym, a swimming pool and –another “vintage” sport of these times– one of the last covered paddle-ball courts.
But clearly, the club’s forte is still rowing, thanks to its fleet of nearly two hundred boats. Among them, many are the traditional ones, made of noble wood, although more and more plastic and fiber boats, lighter and easier to maintain, are on their heels and preferences. In addition there are canoes and kayaks. Some are used for competition, but the vast majority of members use them for trips and walks through the Delta.
Precisely, from the club they have organized for four decades the regatta considered “the longest in the world”: the Zárate-Tigre, which invites you to row 60 kilometers of the Paraná River and that in its latest edition has more than eighty boats competing. On the other hand, Tranquilo Capozzo and Eduardo Guerrero –partners of the Canottieri– were the only two rowers in Argentine sports history to win gold medals in an Olympic competition (Helsinki, 1952).
“The intention of the Board of Directors with this declaration is simple,” a jovial Omar Esper, current vice president of “Cannoto” and a proud member since 1953, summarized for PROFILE. “We want it to be declared a National Historic Monument in order to preserve our club from the in the best possible way, so that it transcends us and so that future generations can continue to enjoy it as much as the founders and us”.
Memory, identity and monuments
When a space or building is declared a Historic Monument, it has a special conservation status since any future spare parts, renovation or refunctionalization plan that its owners want to face must be previously approved by the authorities and the technical staff of the Commission. According to the current Preservation Law, which dates from 1940, a space can be declared a National Historic Monument based on a legislative initiative or by the action of an interested individual or association.
“Today, handling patrimonial issues is not an easy issue since not everything that is old is worth doing. Or, on the contrary, sometimes preserving just the façade of a building is not enough to care for the memory and identity of a space”, Mónica Capano, anthropologist and specialist in cultural heritage, explained to PROFILE. Capano, who currently chairs the National Monuments Commission, added that “heritage inflation” is being discussed all over the world since “for many people all ancient objects should be declared “heritage.” But that is not only not possible, but in order to be able to protect something in a real way, the community must have “appropriated” it and feel represented”, long before a good receive the bureaucratic declaration.
According to Capano, Argentina currently has some 4,000 buildings, spaces or places classified as “Monument”, “Place”, “Village” or “Well” of historical interest. Completing this process includes providing numerous documentation that must be analyzed by experts who can also visit the site.
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