Palacio Paz, Buenos Aires

The Paz Palace, situated in Buenos Aires, is a former mansion that now serves as the home of the Military Officers' Association, a social club maintained by the Argentine military.

Established in 1881 by Argentine Army officer Nicolás Levalle, the Military Officers' Association is a prestigious Buenos Aires social club. Levalle aimed to ease tensions among officers from diverse Argentine provinces. The club moved to a grand palace near San Martín Plaza in 1938. This palace, commissioned by newspaper owner José C. Paz and designed by French architect Louis Sortais, was built between 1902 and 1914 using imported materials from France.

The association leads cultural efforts, partnering with the Catholic University of Argentina. The Officers' Cultural Foundation runs the palace museum, holding lectures, exhibitions, and concerts. The palace also contains the Officers' Library and a publishing house for translating foreign military texts. Their library holds 120,000+ texts, a key source for Argentine military history research.

Moreover, the Paz Palace houses Argentina's top military museum, the National Museum of Armaments. Established in 1941, it boasts 15 rooms categorizing its collection chronologically and by origin. Highlights include Byzantine Emperor Comnenus' chain mail armor (circa 1100), Crusades-era weapons, and an arquebuse from Spain's Battle of Aguere. Notable too are banners and weapons from Argentina's War of Independence, including a durable adapted Mauser rifle, plus coverage of 19th-century early machine gun evolution.

While the library primarily caters to the association's members and researchers, the military museum is open to the general public. Guided tours offer access to the Paz Palace, allowing visitors to explore its rich history and cultural significance.