Address: Defensa-Brasil-Martín García y Av Paseo Colón s/n – San Telmo
Some historians state that it was in this natural cliff where Pedro de Mendoza made the first settlement of the city, maybe because it was the highest land from the shores where you could see the whole Rio de la Plata. Other historians accept the theory that it was in La Vuelta de Rocha (a small square), in La Boca neighborhood.
It is also said that it was called “La punta de Santa Catalina” but the truth is that Parque Lezama as it is today, is a place filled with history.
It used to be a warehouse for slaves; then it became the setting for the first British Invasions as headed by the General Beresford and that then the British David MacKinley transformed in his country-house, where he placed a British flag thus people started to refer to it as “the British’s country-house”.
In 1857, José Gregorio Lezama, a merchant from Salta, modified the property so as to make it bigger (nowadays it is a National Historic Museum). He also took care of the trees and plants and planted lots of trees, giving the park lots of exotic greenery and small stairs, lakes and arbors among many other details that made the property as rich and beautiful as it still is. After Lezama died, his widow, Ángela Álzaga sold the premises to the municipality under the condition that it should be a public park named after her husband.
This park constitutes the setting for a great part of Ernesto Sabato’s work “Sobre héroes y tumbas” (On heroes and tombs).
The park also has an amphitheater that can host 600 people, where many musical shows organized by the Government of the City of Buenos Aires take place.