There was a rather odd sight in downtown Buenos Aires on Thursday as the city’s landmark Obelisco was draped in fabric displaying the national colors of Germany and Argentina.

I was hanging out around the Obelisco in the late afternoon when a choir formed to sing the national anthem of Germany then followed by that of Argentina. It was all quite peculiar, particularly when the Patricios military honor guard arrived to lower the Argentine flag while the colors of Germany waved in the background.

The black-red-yellow-blue-white colored Obelisco was intended to celebrate the 150th anniversary of a treaty signed between Argentina and Germany in 1857. The Obelisco itself does have a German-Argentine connection since it’s construction in 1936 was supervised by the architect Alberto Prebisch, the Argentine son of German parents.