schone lucht 1

'Buenos aires'... 

can be translated as 'fair winds' or 'good airs'... 

but the first one was the meaning intended by the founders in the 16th century... 

by the use of the original name 'Real de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre'

When the Catalans, the King of Aragon and the Count of Barcelona, Cagliari, conquered Sardinia from the Pisans in 1324, they established their headquarters on the top of a hill overlooking the city. 

The hill was known to them as Bon Ayre (or 'Bonaria' in Sardinian language), because it was free from the foul odor that prevailed in the old town (the castle area), which borders on marshland. 

During the siege of Cagliari, the Catalans built a shrine to the Virgin Mary on top of the hill. 

In 1335, King Alfonso the Gentle donated the church to the Mercedarians, who built an abbey that stands to this day. 

In the years that followed, a story circulated claiming that a statue of the Virgin Mary was recovered from the sea after it miraculously helped calm a storm in the Mediterranean. 

That statue was placed in the abbey...

[wiki]