Pirámide de Mayo and White Headscarves of Remembrance

Why is it significant?

Standing proudly at the geometric center of Plaza de Mayo rises the Pirámide de Mayo, the earliest national monument erected in Buenos Aires.

Key Facts

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Standing proudly at the geometric center of Plaza de Mayo rises the Pirámide de Mayo, the earliest national monument erected in Buenos Aires. Commissioned by the First Patriotic Junta in March 1811 to celebrate the first anniversary of the May Revolution of 1810, the modest original obelisk was fashioned out of baked brick and lime mortar by master builder Pedro Vicente Cañete in just a few weeks. In 1856, visionary painter and architect Prilidiano Pueyrredón transformed the structure, encasing the primitive brick obelisk within a grand neoclassical monument crowned by a hollow French statue representing Liberty, holding a Phrygian liberty cap aloft.

Look down at the gray cobblestones encircling the pedestal base: painted in stark white oil paint are dozens of stylised headscarves, known locally as pañuelos blancos.

Beginning on April 30, 1977, during the darkest days of the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, a brave group of fourteen desperate mothers gathered in this square demanding information regarding their abducted children. Because public gatherings of more than three persons were strictly banned under martial law, the police ordered them to circulate. Defiantly, they linked arms and began walking slowly in a circular march around the Pirámide de Mayo every Thursday afternoon at half past three, wearing white cloth diapers and scarves embroidered with the names of their disappeared sons and daughters. Their relentless courage transformed this stone obelisk into an internationally revered sanctuary for global human rights. The square itself was originally partitioned into two colonial squares until 1884, when mayor Torcuato de Alvear demolished the old Recova arcade to unite the plazas.

Walking alongside the painted white headscarves allows you to feel the unbroken moral resilience of generations fighting for truth and justice.

Cross now toward the northern corner of the plaza to face the imposing colonnade of the Metropolitan Cathedral.