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The Complejo Museografico Enrique Udaondo , on the western side of Plaza Belgrano (Wed-Fri 11.15am-5pm, Sat & Sun 10.15am-6pm; $1) claims to be the most important museum complex in South America. However questionable that claim may be, it's certainly one of the continent's biggest. Its principal collections are those contained within the Museo Historico Colonial, housed in the Casa del Virrey and the cabildo on the western side of Plaza Belgrano, and the Museo de Transportes, on the northern end of the plaza, between Avenida Nuestra Senora de Lujan and Lezica y Torrezuri. The Museo Historico Colonial is rather misleadingly named, since its exhibits actually cover a much wider period. Though there are some notable pieces, the museum suffers from a confusing layout and lack of explanatory material; with the exception of the stunning collection of colonial silverware, you really need a certain familiarity with Argentine history to make sense of it all. There's a small display on Lujan's history in the Casa del Virrey, but the museum's principal collection is accessed via the Cabildo next door, a two-storey galleried building dating from 1772. Amongst its other functions, the cabildo has served as a school and a prison, whose most notable inmate was General Bartolome Mitre, incarcerated here in 1874 after his failed rebellion against the newly elected President Avellaneda. The leaders of the short-lived British invasion, General William Beresford and Colonel Dennis Pack, were also held in the cabildo after their surrender in August 1806. Trophies captured during the quashing of the invasion, notably the staff of the 71st Highland Regiment, are prominently displayed in the museum's first room, dedicated to the British invasions and immediately to your right as you enter. Beyond the entrance, an internal door leads onto a pretty courtyard with a marble well in the centre and an elegant wooden balustrade around the first floor of its green and white walls. No doubt it all looked a little less idyllic when the courtyard's cells, to the left as you enter, were actually occupied. Beyond the patio, an outbuilding dedicated to the gaucho also includes a reconstruction of Ricardo Guiraldes' study in his estancia, La Portena , on the outskirts of San Antonio de Areco. The neighbouring pavilion houses a rather dry collection of photographs and documents relating to Argentina's presidents although if you've a fondness for political ephemera you might be interested in the cigarette packets and razorblades emblazoned with the image of Yrigoyen - Argentina's first Radical president, elected in 1916 after the introduction of universal male suffrage. Double back on yourself to return to the main building , where the museum continues with rooms dedicated to the Federal Period, with numerous examples of the divisas federales or ribbons, whose use was imposed by the bloodthirsty and theatrical dictator Rosas. Imprinted with variations on the slogan "death to the savage, disgusting and filthy Unitarists", the ribbons were worn to show loyalty to the Federalist cause and, presumably, to strike fear into the hearts of the Unitarists. Heading beyond these rooms brings you to one of the museum's high points: the Muniz and Lezica collections of Hispanic art. The first of these is particularly impressive for its fine examples of silverware from Alto Peru. Most of the items, such as the huge votive lamp, were destined for religious use but there are domestic items, too: interestingly the extensive use of silver in Peru at this time was largely due to the prohibitive cost of porcelain. Look out for the stunning Mexican Rococo "Bedroom of the child Virgin with prophets, angels and cherubs", an intricate and delicate portrayal of the Virgin in bed constructed of silver, wood, wax, bone and cloth. The Museo de Transportes , Argentina's largest transport museum, offers less a chronology of the evolution of transport than a display of some of Argentina's most historically significant planes, trains and carriages. The museum's two most important exhibits are La Portena , Argentina's first steam locomotive whose first journey, between Plaza Lavalle and Floresta in Buenos Aires, took place in 1857; and the Plus Ultra , the hydroplane with which Ramon Franco, brother of General Franco, made the first crossing of the South Atlantic in 1926. The museum also has a large collection of carriages used by historical figures such as Belgrano and San Martin, including Rosas' Berlin carriage, painted a deep Bordeaux red - and allegedly pulled by horses of the same colour - in keeping with the tyrant's passion for that colour. There's also a staggeringly ornate horse-drawn funeral carriage dating from the late nineteenth century, as well as an example of the rather racy "Kaiser Carabela" motor hearse which replaced it. Two of the museum's more unusual exhibits are Gato and Mancha, the Argentine horses used by Tschiffely, a Swiss explorer who rode from Buenos Aires to New York in the 1930s, and preserved - albeit in a rather motheaten state - for posterity. Gato and Mancha were caballos criollos , Argentina's national breed, descended from the first horses brought by the conquistadores and characterized by a sturdy elongated body, a smooth gait and - as Tschiffely's trip demonstrated - an amazing hardiness. Tschiffely's book recounting the trip is available in English as From Southern Cross to Pole Star or in Spanish as Gato y Mancha .
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