The improvements for the enhancement of the historic Villa Rosalba Palace, belonging to the Ministry of National Defense and architectural heritage of Asunción since 1996, was enabled on Wednesday night, with an act that was attended by the President of the Republic, Mario Abdo Benítez, the first lady Silvana Abdo; the Paraguayan Director General of ITAIPU Binacional, Manuel María Cáceres and other national authorities.
ITAIPU financed and executed the restoration of this architectural monument built at the beginning of the 20th century. The palace was inaugurated in 1919 and has had various uses throughout the last century.
With this restoration, the Binacional contributes to the conservation and promotion of spaces of high historical and cultural value for the country, as part of its Social Responsibility actions. The entire restoration tasks were accompanied from the beginning by professionals from the Superintendence of Works and Development of the Entity.
Among the main works carried out are the maintenance of 445 m² of roof, meticulous treatment of pathologies caused by water infiltration, humidity and invasive vegetation. In addition, the repair and reinforcement of cracks with lime mortar and fiberglass rod was carried out, as well as the intervention in the external area to improve road and pedestrian accessibility, including the construction of accesses and ramps.
In addition, a 190 m² roof was built at the rear access and an elevator was installed with a capacity for four people (or 320 kilograms in weight). The electrical, internal and external lighting systems were totally renewed; monumental lighting, air conditioning and telecommunications infrastructure. In the same way, the plumbing, fire prevention and fighting, rainwater collection and pumping systems were completely remodeled.
Also, the infrastructure was equipped with its own 28,000-liter water reserve systems and a 117 kVA Stand-by generator set, as well as landscaping with a programmable automatic irrigation system. Finally, the ITAIPU technical team that carried out the restoration trained the military personnel on the use and care of the building.
History of the Palace
The Villa Rosalba palace is located on Avenida Mariscal López, between General Santos and Vicepresidente Sánchez, in Asunción. The property was originally owned by the Swedish consul, Justino Berthet, who put it up for sale in 1910 at the end of his mission. Dr. José Emilio Pérez acquired the property and ordered the construction of this building with “art noveau” and “art deco” neoclassical styles for his family residence.
It bears the name of “Villa Rosalba” in homage to Dr. Pérez’s wife, Rosalba Ferraro, who was the daughter of the Italian immigrant Don Manuel Ferraro. It functioned as a place for the sale of fine fabrics imported from Europe and as the Hotel Rasmussen, from 1935 to 1938.
Mrs. Rosalba Ferraro formalized the sale of the property to the Paraguayan State through the Government Notary Public and, in 1943, by Decree of the Executive Power No. 17,158, the Ministry of War and Navy was authorized to acquire the mansion for 15 million Paraguayan pesos for the headquarters of the Command in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Nation.
In recent decades, the building housed the Superior Court of Military Justice and later it was the headquarters of the Permanent Review Court (TPR) of Mercosur, in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and served for this purpose until January 2016.