recoleta cemetery | buenos aires attractions
DESCRIPTION
The Recoleta Cemetery is world famous for the beauty of its architecture, sculptures, bronzes and stained glass windows as well as for its illustrious dead: national heroes, former presidents, writers, scientists, doctors, artists, and sports figures.TRANSCRIPT
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Recoleta Cemetery: Buenos Aires
La Recoleta is one of Buenos Aires’ most attractive and elegant neighborhoods. It has many tourist
attractions, and probably the most famous is the North Cemetery, better known as the Recoleta
Cemetery. The cemetery opened its doors in 1822 as the first public cemetery in the City of
Buenos Aires.
+ AN OPEN AIR MUSEUM
Recoleta Cemetery owes its worldwide fame and renown to its beautiful architecture, its
sculptures, bronzes and stained glass windows. Is the final resting place of many famous people,
including presidents, national heroes, writers, scientists, doctors, artists and sports heroes.
The architectural designs of the five thousand mausoleums crowded into only five-and-a¬half city
blocks are truly eye-catching. La Recoleta is the preferred final resting place of wealthy and
important personalities, and their mausoleums feature the same luxury as their palatial mansions.
Family name are featured on the façades of their mausoleums. To be laid to rest in La Recoleta in
the final status symbol.
For this reason, we can speak of an open-air museum: we find beautiful artwork created by
Argentines and foreigners: angels and other marble figures, bronze used to portray the dead or
adorn the doors of the mausoleums, symbolic and religious images and the greatest collection of
stained glass windows in Argentina.
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Without doubt, the mausoleum most visitors to the Recoleta Cemetery want to see is the tomb of
María Eva Duarte de Perón. Evita was a very active First Lady during Juan Perón’s first presidency
(1946-1952). She fought for the rights of workers, women (through her efforts women obtained
the right to vote in 1947) and children. The Fundación Eva Perón established schools (including a
school of nursing), hospitals and homes for women, children and seniors throughout Argentina.
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www.ba-h.com.ar + THE MOST DISTINGUISHED PERSONALITIES IN THE RECOLETA CEMETERY
It would be impossible to name all the distinguished people in La Recoleta. The following list
names only the most prominent.
• National heroes: Brigadier General Juan Manuel de Rosas, General Juan Galo Lavalle, General
Facundo Quiroga, Coronel Federico Brandsen, Brigadier Cornelio Saavedra, Almirante Guillermo
Brown and Coronel Manuel Dorrego
• Argentine Presidents (not a complete list): Hipólito Yrigoyen, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Julio
Argentino Roca, Carlos Pellegrini, Bartolomé Mitre, Arturo Humberto Illia, Marcelo Torcuato
Alvear and Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín
• Evita Perón
• Writers: José Hernández, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Paul Groussac, Victoria and Silvina Ocampo
• Nobel Prize Winners: Luis Federico Leloir and Carlos Saavedra Lamas
• Doctors: Cosme Argerich, Francisco Muñiz, and Guillermo Rawson
• Sports figures: Luis Angel Firpo and Martín Karadagián
• Artists: Armando Bó, Luis Amadori, Zully Moreno and Blanca
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+ CURIOUS FACTS ABOUT LA RECOLETA CEMETERY
• In La Recoleta, luxurious mausoleums abound. Sadly, one also sees mausoleums and
tombs in a state of total decrepitude. Bought in perpetuity, abandoned because no one is left to take care of them, they cannot be torn down.
• Because of its resemblance to an automatic teller machine, the mausoleum of the Herrera Noble family, owners of the Clarín newspaper, is known as Banelco (a play on “Bank”).
• The cemetery is full of cats. Some people believe that these felines can see things invisible to the human eye (which would explain their bizarre behavior).
• Many Masonic symbols can be found because quite a few Argentine founding fathers and presidents belonged to lodges. You will see compasses, pyramids, pentagrams and squares.
• Myth, legend or fact? One mausoleum belongs to a young cemetery caretaker named David Alleno. His story is surprising because, as a man of few resources, he obtained a place in a cemetery designed for members of high society. Even more surprising, David is said to have committed suicide in order to inaugurate his mausoleum.
+ SCHEDULES AND TRANSPORTATION The cemetery is open to the public every day from 8:30 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.
It is located at Junín 1760 and is on many bus routes: 17, 61, 62, 67, 92, 93 10, 37, 38, 41, 59, 60,
95, 101, 102, 108, 118, 124, 130.
You can also walk ten blocks from Plaza San Martín and Calle Florida until you reach Avenida del
Libertador.
+ RECOMMENDATIONS
Take your camera and don’t forget to charge your batteries because you will want to take
many photos.
Don’t forget your MP3 since music can be great company when you are walking.
Wear comfortable shoes.
Sunglasses can be useful Sunscreen can also be necessary since long exposure to sunlight
can be risky.
Be careful with your valuables (wallet, backpack or bag, camera, computer, iPad).
You can visit La Recoleta on sunny or cloudy days.
Different light will give different tones to your photos.
Take time to visit the many other attractions in the Recoleta neighborhood.
+ WHERE TO STAY IN RECOLETA
You will find a complete list of lodgings in Apartments, Hostels, Bed & Breakfasts and University
Residences in Recoleta.
www.ba-h.com.ar + MORE PHOTOS OF LA RECOLETA CEMETERY
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Source: Buenos Aires Hostels + www.ba-h.com.ar the principal reference for Hostels in Buenos Aires. The website was created in 1999 and offers an ample selection of hostels, apartments, bed and breakfasts, and university residences in the principal Buenos Aires neighborhoods: Palermo, Recoleta, Barrio Norte, Belgrano, San Telmo, La Boca, etc.