Nuevos palacios

Uruguay underwent a huge transformation process around 1900 that placed it as a modern, thriving and independent nation within the great world panorama. The architectural works produced in the country at that time were used as a demonstration of greatness, abundance and progress by advertising publications sent to Europe in order to attract potential visitors and settlers. This work addresses - through the look at the buildings portrayed in these publications - the role of architecture in the process of formation and consolidation of the republic. The analysis of the incorporation of these images is crossed by the conceptions of national identity, closely related to the modernization processes of the beginning of the 20th century. It is proposed to reflect on how the visuality of the architecture produced in that period - executed by the first professionals trained in the country - collaborated in the processes of national identification.