Villa Ocampo was, beyond the private residence of Victoria Ocampo, a refuge for the world’s thinkers and a hideaway for some of the most distinguished figures of the twentieth century. The house, which was first constructed as a vacation property for the Ocampo family, and later used as their weekend retreat, became Victoria’s permanent home beginning in the 1940s.

Today the Villa is the site of the only cultural project of its kind in Argentina and in Latin America: the property is important for its architecture, interior furnishings and library, but more than anything for its historical function as a sanctuary for some of the primary crafters of twentieth century thought. Well-known Argentine and foreign intellectuals — including Graham Greene, Roger Caillois, Waldo Frank, Alfonso Reyes, Albert Camus, André Malraux, Aldous Huxley, Le Corbusier, Octavio Paz, Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, Maurice Ravel, Walter Gropius and Jorge Luis Borges — visited Victoria at the Villa Ocampo and there read, discussed, and mulled over many critical ideas and projects of the times. The Villa staged this forum of international reflection and debate —in its moments, the sessions evoked the atmosphere of the Bloomsbury Group in London— which fixed its sights on free thought in an era marked by the heavy hands of military rule and economic depressions throughout Latin America. This was an era of concerted cultural projects, and Villa Ocampo saw many of these undertakings begin.