Las Nereidas Fountain by Lola Mora and Costanera Promenade
Why is it significant?
We conclude our journey along the Buenos Aires waterfront before one of the most sublime and controversial sculptural masterpieces in South America: the Fuente de las Nereidas.
Key Facts
| Place | Las Nereidas Fountain by Lola Mora and Costanera Promenade |
|---|---|
| Address | Avenida Tristán Achával Rodríguez 1550, C1107 CABA, Argentina |
| Geo Coordinates | -34.61480, -58.35920 |
| Part of Walk | Puerto Madero, Retiro, and Costanera Sur: Century Docks to Modern Riverfront |
| Generated | Generated |
We conclude our journey along the Buenos Aires waterfront before one of the most sublime and controversial sculptural masterpieces in South America: the Fuente de las Nereidas. Sculpted in Rome from pure white Carrara marble by Argentina's pioneering female sculptor Lola Mora, this monument was unveiled on May 21, 1903. The monumental fountain depicts the mythological birth of Venus, emerging naked from a giant seashell supported by tritons and frolicking sea nymphs, or nereids, restraining rearing sea horses amid splashing water.
Notice the sensual curves and dynamic movement carved into the marble: Lola Mora personally chipped away at these enormous Carrara marble blocks in her Roman studio without assistant sculptors.
When the fountain was first erected in May 1903 near Plaza de Mayo, its sensual female nudes provoked a ferocious public scandal among conservative moralists and church leaders, who denounced it as scandalous and demanded it be veiled in black cloth. Despite passionate defenses by liberal intellectuals and feminists, moral pressure forced the municipal government to remove the fountain in 1918 and banish it to this distant, deserted riverbank at Costanera Sur, then on the outermost fringes of the city. Lola Mora, deeply hurt by the hypocritical moral censure of patriarchal society, died in poverty in 1936. Today, her fountain is revered as a National Historic Monument and a historic triumph of female artistic freedom. Just behind the fountain lies the entrance to the Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve, an eight-hundred-acre wilderness of wetlands, lagoons, and pampean birds on the shores of the river.
Gazing at the radiant white marble nymphs against the green background of the ecological reserve is a stirring celebration of artistic courage and natural beauty.
You have completed our Puerto Madero and Waterfront walk; stroll along the riverside promenade to enjoy a traditional choripán or explore the nature trails of the reserve.