Independence Park

The octagonal Kiosk of Light conceals a small interior space behind four entrances, and a dome rises above its walls; four seasons alternate on the cement reliefs. When electrical machinery operated here, electricity was distributed from here, and this function gave the building its name. The equipment was taken away long ago, major roads reduced the park itself, but the pavilion remains in its original place.

In the summer of nineteen ten, master builder Simón Mendoza received an unusual commission: to build a small pavilion here entirely from cement, without a wooden frame. The commission came from industrialists Tomás and José María Samper, who were directing preparations for a major agricultural and industrial exhibition.

For the brothers, the material was directly connected to their income. The family businesses sold cement and electricity, and the new pavilion was meant to show potential buyers both products in action. The Sampers paid for the construction and proposed giving the building to the city. Mendoza was tasked with proving that Colombian cement could be used not only for pipes and tanks, but also for finely decorated walls, four entrances, a dome, and reliefs of the seasons.

The exhibition was prepared for the centenary of the events of July twentieth, eighteen ten. At that time, in Santafé de Bogotá—the name Bogotá had then—opponents of the colonial administration formed a local junta, that is, a government of their own. This day is considered the beginning of Colombian independence; for its anniversary, the green tract received its present name.

The centenary came after the civil Thousand Days' War and the separation of Panama. The organizers wanted to assemble here a convincing picture of a country capable of producing its own goods. Within a few months, under the direction of the Samper brothers, pavilions for industry, machinery, fine arts, and agriculture appeared, along with Egyptian and Japanese kiosks, restaurants, and spaces for animals. Mendoza's pavilion housed equipment that distributed the electricity donated to the exhibition. That is where its literal name came from: the Kiosk of Light.

The intended picture turned out to be incomplete. Many regions of the country did not send exhibits; agriculture and mining were poorly represented, and a significant part of the “industry” consisted of baked goods, shoes, furniture, cigarettes, and handicrafts. The Sampers proved less than they had intended, but their own example worked: the structure came to be considered Bogotá's first building made entirely from domestic cement.

The other exhibition pavilions were dismantled in the following decades, and the construction of major city roads deprived the park of a significant part of its territory. Only Mendoza's octagonal pavilion survived. The electrical machinery has long been gone from inside, but its cement walls remain in the very place where the Samper brothers showed Bogotá what they expected to live on in the new century.