On July 20, 1908, Carrera 8 and Calle 7, in Bogotá, became the most important political site in Colombia. On that date, the Nariño Palace, the imposing building that stands in that direction, was inaugurated as the seat of government and since then it has been the place where the president has made the decisions that have marked the path of the nation. Its history began with the architects of the Casa de Nariño, a Frenchman and a Colombian, but its importance goes back hundreds of years with a man: Vicente Nariño.
This Creole loaner from New Granada acquired the house that was on that property in 1754 and lived there with his wife, Catalina Álvarez, and their 8 children for 30 years. In those walls, the renowned Antonio Nariño opened his eyes for the first time, who would become a hero of independence and would be remembered as the man of rights in the Republic of Colombia. Since then, the political character of that piece of land was felt and, perhaps, that is the reason why it is currently the home of the most important man in the country.
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The house of the hero of independence, Antonio Nariño
The history of the House of Nariño began when Colombia was still called New Granada and was one of the viceroyalties of the Spanish empire. In Santafé, its capital, on Calle de la Carrera, a road that crossed the current 7th Street, stood a mansion that was acquired in 1754 by Vicente Nariño and his wife, Catalina Álvarez. Both of them, descendants of Spaniards, decided to start their family in that place and then had 8 children, among them Antonio Amador José Nariño and Álvarez, better known as Antonio Nariño.
On April 9, 1765, in that two-story building, white walls, clay tiles and wooden doors, the renowned man of rights was born. And there, during his first 19 years, was where he learned the things that would lead him to be recognized as a hero of independence. Through his father’s books he learned about philosophy, history, literature, arts and languages, being a great polyglot. And without knowing it, he began to create a legend around his family’s house, his house, due to his work with the independentistas.
Even so, when he was 13 years old, his father died; and although Mrs. Catalina tried to continue living in her house, in the end, in 1784, she had to sell it to be able to survive with her children. It was then that it began to be passed from hand to hand and had inside it a mayor, a doctor and other influential people of the time, but as the years went by, the “Narino family house” obtained recognition that It was inevitable not to have. And that, added to its elegant appearance, led the government to buy it in 1888 with one objective, to make it the home of the presidents.
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The architects who turned it into the Casa de Nariño, the seat of government
During the presidency of Carlos Holguín Mallarino, in 1888, the National Government fulfilled the order of Law 85 of 1885, published by Rafael Núñez, to buy the house and convert it into the Presidential Palace. Three reasons were the reasons for the decision: its beauty, its history and its location; and although this undertaking took a long time, in 1906, President Rafael Reyes led the demolition and reconstruction of the Casa de Nariño and hired the Frenchman Gastón Lelarge as the person responsible for designing the new appearance of the Palace.
The architect had arrived in Colombia in 1890 and, although in his first years in the country he worked as a fencing teacher, after serving in the military in Algeria he began working for ‘La Revista Ilustrada’ and soon led some architectural projects such as the well-known Castillo Marroquín, the Lievano Palace, headquarters of the Mayor’s Office, or the Echeverri Palace, headquarters of the Ministry of Culture, all accompanied by the Colombian architect Julián Lombana.
With all that experience, Gastón Lelarge did not hesitate to design what would be the new house of the presidents and, with pencil, paper and squares, he made the plans where he preserved the original façade of the Nariño family house and some interior spaces; But he also innovated with rooms worthy of a government headquarters, cachet exteriors and, above all, the renowned façade in carved and carved stone that appears in all the photographs when searching for “Casa de Nariño”.
A present full of power
The Presidential Palace was inaugurated on July 20, 1908, in the celebration of the 98 years of Colombia’s Independence. Until 1954 it functioned as the seat of government, when General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla decided that the San Carlos Palace would be the home of the presidency during his term. That order lasted until 1979, when the presidents returned to set foot in the Casa de Nariño, a year after they made some renovations to the design created by Gastón Lelarge and Julián Lombana.
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Today, the house still has two floors, as when Vicente Nariño bought it; but with more rooms and more outdoor space. Nearby is the Presidential Guard and the Astronomical Observatory, the oldest in America, in addition to being surrounded by the San Agustín Church, the Ministry of Finance building, the Echeverry Palace and other buildings of great importance for politics and the Colombian economy. It is said that approximately 29 presidents have served their mandate in this place, with Álvaro Uribe Vélez and Juan Manuel Santos being the ones who have resided there the longest.
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