Address: Florida s/n – San Nicolás
Since 1970 it is a pedestrian street that comprises ten blocks of great commercial movement that is unfolded in an important amount of galleries, stores, traditional bookstores and cafés. It carries an eclectic history that shows a variety of architectonical styles that distinguish it, and remembers the mixture of aristocratic and popular history.
Florida street was practically born at the same time as the city of Buenos Aires. It was part of the street plan drawn up by Juan de Garay in 1580, and it functioned as an access road between the small farms that supplied the city. It was the street chosen for the passage of the armies, even the bullfights.
Towards 1880, it was already filled with great residences pertaining to the families of the Buenos Aires elite that gave a unique and distinctive architectonic profile to this street. Mariquita Sanchez de Thompson had her house here, among other outstanding characters, towards the mid XVIIIth century; it was the first in stone paved streets, and because of that reason, was called “the cobbled street”.
In spite of some previous attempts, it was finally called Florida Street in 1856.
At the beginning of the 1900´s it was already the most important commercial area in the country. Emulating the Parisian style, it exhibited merchandise of great category imported from France and England. It became a reference in fashion due to the great stores that imitated the European model; Harrod´s, Gath & Chaves and the Güemes Gallery stood out, among other important ones.
