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On the corner of Corrientes and Azcuénaga, in front of the Olivos Station, there is a Italianate-style mansion, whose façade stands out for its brick color, a balcony with three arches, a terrace with a gazebo and a tower from which, until a few years ago, the Río de La Plata could be seen. It is a smaller scale replica of a castle in the city of Liege, in Belgium that its owner had fallen in love with in his youth.
It is called San Roque and it has been a symbol of the neighborhood for more than a hundred years. It was built in 1922 by the Italian architect Icilio Chiocci, at the request of its owner, the economist Leopoldo Rodríguez Ortegawith an architectural style that also has features of the Tuscan Italian palaces, and details of an eclectic-historicist style. Chiocci’s signature is chiseled into one of the walls.
The property, which still bears some traces of its majesty, is in ruins for years. It was for sale for a long time until one day the sign disappeared and many believed that the owner, a relative of Rodríguez Ortega, had repented. But not. The house was sold, although it remains abandoned.
Nobody knows for sure what its destination is, but it is known that it is a private property that has high fiscal maintenance costs and that, many years ago, the municipality of Vicente López carried out a survey to manage its historical heritage value. However, there was never a definition and, like so many other historic houses in the area, the matter is still under study because, in addition, the owner’s consent is needed.
At the beginning of the last century, when Leopoldo Rodríguez Ortega returned from Germany, he decided to invest part of his fortune in several lots of Olivos. He bought several, including the one on the corner of Corrientes and Azcuénaga. In 1922 he commissioned the construction of a mansion to the Italian engineer and architect Icilio Chiocchi. By then Olivos was an area of villas, and that 380 square meter lot stood out for its location, in front of the new train station.. For many years it was the imposing house that could be seen from the train, on both sides.
The house was opened a year later by the family, who named it Villa San Roque. Surrounded by gardens, it looks beautiful vitreaux, the carpentry is made of oak and has very elegant finishing details. The property has two floors with 356 square meters covered. On the ground floor there is a large hall, living room, desk, kitchen and toilet. And on the upper floor there is four bedrooms, two of them with balconyand two bathrooms. The main entrance is on Corrientes 608.
When Marta Keller Sarmiento de Rodríguez Ortega died, Leopoldo was left alone and without children, and decided to sell the property to his nephew, Eduardo Rodríguez Ortega, who lived there with his wife and children until the late ’90s. Since then, San Roque has been closed and uninhabited. The closed shutters, the growing weeds and the deterioration of 40 years that is becoming more and more noticeable, caused some ghost stories among neighborsbut they are just rumors. Known as “the castle”, it is a symbol of Olivos.
The original owner was Leopoldo Rodríguez Ortega, who was born in Buenos Aires in 1893, studied in Germany and graduated in Economic Sciences. During his stay in Europe he visited Belgium and fell in love with one of the castles in Liege. Therefore, when he returned to Buenos Aires he asked Chiocci to build his house just like a wing of one of those castles, on a smaller scale.
It was a Prominent neighbor of the area and great benefactor of Vicente López’s party. He was a member of the Executive Committee that built the Municipal Hospitalcollaborated with the construction of the Jesús parish in the Huerto de los Olivos and donated the land where the Vicente López Municipal Geriatric Hospital was built, which since 1964 has carried his name. And precisely in the nursing home is the only existing image of Leopoldo, an oil painting that was always in San Roque until, some time ago, the nursing home was donated as a tribute.
Its second owner, Eduardo Rodríguez Ortega, also has his own story. His father, Eduardo Rodríguez Ortega, also born in Buenos Aires in 1871, studied at the National College of Buenos Aires and then went to study in Germany where he graduated as an engineer and worked on works of great importance. At the same time he sent for his brother Alberto, who followed in his footsteps in the same career; and finally the youngest, Leopoldo. The three stood out in their respective areas and returned to Argentina with a considerable fortune that they invested in land. Alberto Rodríguez Ortega was the one who He brought the reinforced concrete system to our country and built a rental building with one of the most beautiful towers in the city.on the corner of Rivadavia and Ayacucho, a few meters from the National Congress. Influenced by the Catalan architect Gaudí, its dome reads the Catalan motto “No Hi Ha Somnis Impossibles” (There are no impossible dreams).
