Global Courant 2023-04-29 18:00:47
Let’s say everything: Sandro must have been the flower of a monarchist and he sublimated it through his properties. He liked royalty. He must have believed himself a king without a crown or perhaps he hated the expenses, the neighbors and he wanted them to bring him the purchases from the supermarket in a float.
There is no other explanation for his love of fortresses. To the impregnable Banfield mansion, we must add a lesser-known treasure in the shape of a castle, and not exactly made of sand, located on Pavón avenue in the Boedo neighborhood.
You have just passed by that unusual construction and you write down: Pavón Avenue 3939. It seems to be from Rasti, it would only need the ditch and the drawbridge. Since we still have an ounce of capacity for wonder, we ring the bell (yes, a castle with an electric intercom).
Sandro’s castle, on Pavón avenue. Photo Constance Niscovolos
Excalibur Records
A big man who looks like the singer from Catupecu Machu attends.
-Sorry, I was curious to know who lived here…
-Here? This was Sandro’s producer…
-Sandro… ¿Sandro?
Sandra, yes. His producer, not his house. The offices of Excalibur Records worked here.
Excalibur Records, that was the name of Sandro’s production company, in the Boedo neighborhood. Photo Constance Niscovolos
If you look carefully, on the door there are a couple of posters where it is stated that the City recognizes not the hilarious architecture of the building, but the idol. There is also an image of the idol that must have been made by the same sculptor who made Evita on July 9.
-The same person, yes, just like that, Alejandro Marmo. And he donated it. There are two alike. One for Banfield house and one for the castle.
Marley, the television host, passed by here recently, without Mirko, and he had the same disorientation as this chronicler. In Sandro’s castle that few know about, he tweeted surprised by the discovery.
Guided tours
-Do you want to come in? –they invite us by opening a metal gate-. There are guided tours today. Happens…
On a wall you see a drawing of the castle that you are stepping on right now. And that? “It is the sketch made by Sandro. He designed everything, right down to the door handles and window openings. All. It is a Moorish castle. It is clear that he liked that style … “, they explain to us.
The speaker is Luis, Lucho Ortiz, a “real” tenant of a property that currently works in various ways, with classes and workshops, and is the headquarters of the Cultural CAVA, a wine place.
Lucho Ortiz, in charge of the Sandro castle. It is home to a place with classes and workshops on wine. Photo Constance Niscovolos
Sandro’s tenant arrived shortly before the pandemic. He tells that the rent is paid to Olga, Olga Garaventa herself, the artist’s widow.
“Did you realize that the fittings are made of solid iron?”, he points out as if we were capable of assessing such a thing. “What’s more, Olga herself, Sandro met her here, in the castle. She was hired for cleaning tasks. Olga lived around the corner, so it looked great on her…”
How would she, alone and her soul, order such a palace with three floors and so many rooms that one loses count?
As if we were in a Marvel multiverse, the castle is a city within another. And it is also a state of mind, a way of living, without so much fanfare, the “experience” of a Sandro Museum.
Memories, personal belongings of the Gypsy, a chronological display of his career, photos, instruments. In Liverpool there is something similar, but dedicated to The Beatles.
“We don’t have any subsidies,” Luis says or complains, as we climb a staircase and arrive at a radio studio where the mythical “nenas” make their program dedicated to the hero.
Here and there are rooms in a row that were once offices and are now places to practice taekwondo, make live music or show movies.
Some of Sandro’s objects, on display in what used to be his castle. Photo Constance Niscovolos
a quick buy
In 1979 this was a chorizo house. Legend has it that Sandro was going to the old Channel 11 to make a presentation and at one point he saw a sign that said “For sale”. He asks for the car to stop, gets out, copies a phone. The following week the property was already his.
From then on the sketches of the “castle” begin. Delirious strokes and outlined by him, reviewed and signed by an architect and finally approved by the Municipality on November 27, 1985.
-And how do you know all this, Luis?
Olga told me. Don’t forget that she entered Sandro’s life here. At first, I told you, she was only in charge of cleaning, but later she became a kind of steward of the castle.
On the ground floor there are duly framed handwritten letters. A showcase exhibits a certain glass with which Sandro drank a certain spirit. There is a robe, which is not the mythical red robe, and there is the giant decoration of a flower, the purple rose that Sandro used as scenery for a famous show.
-All these things were here?
-No, no, Olga lent it to me. Olga and her son Pablo. For them it is important that they know the history of this place that Sandro originally built to be a recording studio. Actually, his dream was to record with Tina Turner. Then she ended up being a producer…
The land of the chorizo house was 8.66 in front by 60 in the background. The architects warned Sandro that, technically, it would not be possible to carry out a study due to the vibration coming from the street. Back then, Pavón was all paved.
Sandro’s memorabilia in his castle in Boedo. The place has guided tours. Photo Constance Niscovolos
What did the architect Sandro do? He ordered the construction of an anti-seismic castle! That is what this quasi-noble building is, lost in the middle of a neighborhood that mixes literature, tango, low houses and still lifes.
The palatial madness only opened in 1989, full hyperinflation. The neighbors couldn’t believe their eyes. Excalibur Records has been running since 1991. This is where Sandro held meetings and signed contracts. This is where he once told his representative and his friend Aldo Aresi: “Hey, Olga is hot.”
To all this, Luis is a sommelier. On the terrace he organizes tastings and those things typical of viticulture. “I didn’t know anything about the castle, much less that it had been owned by Sandro. I went into a real estate agency, they told me about the place and when I saw it I was impressed. And dumb”.
Month by month the tenant got to know Olga and became an expert. “Sandro’s story took me completely,” he says before clarifying that Olga is the universal heir to all of Sandro and Pablo’s assets, her son – with whom Luis has daily contact – ended up being the Gypsy’s personal assistant.
On one of the floors there is a chronological show that makes fans cry: it starts at the beginning, with Los de Fuego. Luis narrates everything with hypnotic magnetism. In a photo, Sandro is seen at the door of La Cueva, the iconic cave where national rock was born. Sandro’s Cave, it reads.
Los de Fuego, Sandro’s band with which it all began, honored on a wall of his castle. Photo Constance Niscovolos
“It was his -explains Luis-, but the average rock that hid the information because he considered that Sandro had been a traitor who ended up making ballads…”
During the tour we went through an exhibition of photographs called Desde la platea, photos taken by the “girls” with whom Sandro had a humane relationship, far from the idol/groupies relationship. The sample is sensational, it gives for another note.
“Sandro was a phenomenon, a guy capable of taking charge and even paying for surgical interventions of his most faithful followers. Absolutely unusual for him: affectionate, close, nothing to do with anything related to popular idols.”
A white Elvis-style guitar, the robe (another one) with which he made his last performance at the Gran Rex. Images of her recital at Madison Square Garden in New York. The idol’s office now converted into a radio theater auditorium.
“During the visit, the three floors of the building are toured and we tell the story of this construction and the events that were marking the destinations of the place,” it is reported on a web page.
957 square meters. On the ground floor, a theme bar full of personal items and souvenirs. In the corridor, a showcase where you can see a collection of all his single records.
A beautiful corner of the castle of Sandro in Boedo. Photo Constance Niscovolos
-Do people know this place? I mean, do they get the visits that Sandro deserves?
-Like everything that had to do with Sandro’s activity off stage, this was not a place hit by the spotlight. People didn’t have to know. The task of making it known now, since we got the qualification of the space as a cultural center, is quite recent. We do not have subsidies or sponsors, so it is a very lung and handmade job. The famous word of mouth.
WD
