French sculptor Joseph Dubourdieu's pediment relief of the reunion of Joseph with his brothers and father Jacob in Egypt serves as an allegory of the unity of the Argentine nation after several fraticide wars.
Catedral Metropolitana de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral), overlooking Plaza de Mayo on the corner of San Martín and Rivadavia, is the mother church of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Buenos Aires (Archidioecesis Bonaerensis).
Rebuilt several times since its 16th century origins, the present building is a mix of architectural styles, with an 18th-century nave and dome and a severe, 19th-century Neoclassical façade without towers. In 1753, Italian architect Antonio Masella designed the Latin cross foundation of the church, with a three-aisled nave covered with barrel vaulting and lateral chapels. A dome was to sit over the crossing, but after fissures were detected, Masella as removed from the project and the dome was rebuilt by Portuguese architect Manuel Álvarez de Rocha in 1770. The old church's façade, designed by Giovani Blanqui in 1727, and the original towers were demolished in 1778 and the new façade-less cathedral was finally consecrated in 1791.
Construction on a new façade began in the early 19th century under Spanish architect Tomás Toribio, but stalled. In 1826 French architects Prosper Catelin and Pierre Benoit began construction on the neoclassical façade, which consists of a tall portico with twelve columns and a triangular pediment on top. It wasn't until 1860-1863 that the facade decoration was completed.
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