Casa de Fierro

La Casa de Fierro (English: the Iron House, French: La Maison de Fer), located in the city of Iquitos in the jungle of Peru, in front of the major square between Prospero and Putumayo streets, is a large iron residence built during the rubber boom at the end of the XIX century. It is one of the finest as well as best-preserved samples of civil architecture in Peru. The walls, ceiling, and balcony are plastered in rectangular sheets of iron. It is said to be the first prefabricated house in the Americas. ["Practiguia Peru", First ed., pag. 261. Peru Guia S.R.L., Lima, 1994 es icon] It was designed by the French architect Gustave Eiffel and built in the Belgian workshops of Les Forjes D´Aisseau. Rubber baron Anselmo del Aguila bought it at the International Exposition of Paris in 1889. Once dismantled, it was brought in pieces to Iquitos (the metal sheets were carried by hundreds of men through the jungle), and assembled there in 1890.

Since 1985, it is being administered by the Club Social de Iquitos; which has contributed in its restoration. Its second floor now has a restaurant.

Notes and references

ee also

* Iquitos
* Fitzcarraldo
* [http://www.peru.info/e_ftohistoriaeng.asp?pdr=583&jrq=4.2.7&ic=2&ids=1155 Iquitos: following the route of the rubber boom] (from the PromPeru official tourism promotion website)
* [http://www.carishina.com/webnewarticles/fierro.html La Casa de fierro d'Iquitos (Pérou): Une oeuvre du "magicien du fer" (Gustave Eiffel) en pleine Amazonie] (in French)
* [http://www.latinreporters.com/expeeiffel12072002.html La Casa de Fierro d'Iquitos (Pérou): Gustave Eiffel en pleine Amazonie] (in French)