MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Kirchner Cultural Center (CCK) in BA to be renamed Palacio Libertad

Under Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) several initiatives to rename it were unsuccessful

Argentine authorities announced Tuesday that the Kirchner Cultural Center in Buenos Aires would be renamed “Palacio Libertad,” Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni confirmed. Still, Adorni failed to specify when the name change would become effective but it was explained that the modification would stem from a Casa Rosada decree.

The former Post Office HQs were converted into a cultural center in 2015 under then-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner after heavy restoration and refurbishing.

After names such as Julio Argentino Roca, Jorge Luis Borges, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, and Bartolomé Mitre were weighed, Palacio Libertad was chosen.

Not far from Casa Rosada in downtown Buenos Aires, the building with over 100,000 square meters in surface was completed in 1928 after its construction was approved by then-Presidednt Miguel Juárez Celman in the 1880s. promoted its construction which began in 1911 to become the headquarters of the Dirección de Correos y Telégrafos and was entrusted to French architect Norbert-Auguste Maillart.

In 1997, the building and its furnishings were declared a National Historic Monument and Heritage Site.

In 2009, during the presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the four facades and the interior of the building underwent restoration and enhancement works. Meanwhile, in May 2015, it reopened its doors, this time baptized as Néstor Kirchner Cultural Center (CCK).

Under Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) several initiatives to rename it were unsuccessful.