History
The district was named after "The Count" Antonio Devoto, who was the owner of most of its lands. The Count Devoto was a member of the elite of Buenos Aires. In respect of his help to Italy during the first world war he was given the title of count by the king.
Don Devoto built what was the largest mansion at the time and it became known as Devoto Palace —Prince Umberto Saboya stayed there during a visit to Buenos Aires. The mansion was built on National Avenue and occupied around 10,000 square metres. The mansion was decorated in bronze, silver and gold with ironwork forged in Italy, and Florentine mosaics.
Don Devoto died in 1916 before the work on the mansion was complete. He did not leave any descendants, and no one could be found to buy the weird house; in 1938 it was split into building lots on which houses were later built.
Read more about this topic: Villa Devoto
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (18911960)
“In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (18381918)
“This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation, because as a result of what happened in this week, the world is bigger, infinitely.”
—Richard M. Nixon (19131995)