South of Buenos Aires, on the banks of the Riachuelo, Argentina's first industrial district was born: hide warehouses, meat-salting plants, tanneries, meatpacking plants and huge factories. The wealthy families who lived here fled north after the yellow fever of 1871, and the river was left one of the most polluted in the world. Twelve stops between the park where tradition places the first founding of the city, the old Calle Larga of country estates, the church raised because of a crime of passion, the mosaic-covered lane, the bridge to the old Barracas al Sud, the Scottish-founded espadrille factory, the river bend painted by Quinquela, the 1914 transporter bridge, the Pompeya sanctuary and its tango, the Alsina Bridge, the old Mataderos cattle market and the metalworks its workers took over. Approximate audio duration: 24 minutes.
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Barracas: el sur industrial de Buenos Aires, del saladero a la fábrica recuperada
Al sur de Buenos Aires, a orillas del Riachuelo, nació la primera zona industrial del país: depósitos de cueros, saladeros de carne, curtiembres, frigoríficos y grandes fábricas. Las familias ricas que vivían acá huyeron al norte después de la fiebre amarilla de 1871, y el río quedó como uno de los más contaminados del mundo. Doce paradas entre el parque donde la tradición ubica la primera fundación, la vieja Calle Larga de las quintas, la iglesia levantada por un crimen pasional, el pasaje cubierto de mosaicos, el puente hacia la antigua Barracas al Sud, la fábrica de alpargatas de los escoceses, la vuelta del río que pintó Quinquela, el puente transbordador de 1914, el santuario de Pompeya y su tango, el Puente Alsina, el viejo mercado de hacienda de Mataderos y la metalúrgica que sus obreros recuperaron. Duración aproximada de audio: 24 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~24 min of audio · 36.93 km on foot (~9 h 15 min walking) · about 9 h 45 min in total
You are in Parque Lezama, at the top of a bluff. Look down towards the south and east: before the buildings and avenues, from here you could see marshland and the Riachuelo river. This is the edge between the old city and the south you are about to explore.
Tradition says that somewhere around here Pedro de Mendoza founded the first Buenos Aires in 1536. There is no archaeological proof of the exact spot, but the idea stuck, which is why the park has a monument to the conquistador. That first settlement was abandoned a few years later, worn down by hunger.
In the nineteenth century this was …
2
The Long Road and the Fever That Emptied the District
You are on Avenida Montes de Oca, looking south. This avenue runs straight down to the Riachuelo. It used to be called the Calle Larga de Barracas, the long road linking the city with the river crossing.
The district takes its name from the barracas: large sheds and warehouses that, from the eighteenth century on, stood near the Riachuelo. Hides, wool, tallow and other farm goods were stored in them before being shipped. Leather was then the great wealth of the River Plate.
Along the Calle Larga, rich Buenos Aires families kept their country retreats, with gardens running down to the bluff. …
3
The Church of Felicitas Guerrero
In front of you is the church of Santa Felicitas, on Calle Isabel la Católica, facing Plaza Colombia. Look at its towers and eclectic, Gothic-tinged facade. This is no ordinary parish church: it was built because of a crime.
Felicitas Guerrero was one of the richest women in Buenos Aires. Very young, she was married off to Martín de Álzaga, a much older man, and soon she was a widow and heiress to an enormous fortune.
She had many suitors. One of them, Enrique Ocampo, could not accept that she had chosen someone else. On 29 January 1872 he went to see her at her country house and, after an a…
4
The Lane That Became a Work of Art
You are in Pasaje Lanín, a short, curving lane three blocks long between Brandsen and Avenida Suárez. Look at the facades: they are covered in paint and pieces of ceramic and mirror, with coloured lines running from one house to the next.
It is the work of Marino Santa María, a visual artist who lived and had his studio on this lane. In the late 1990s he began by painting the front of his own house. Then he persuaded his neighbours to join in, one house at a time.
The street was inaugurated as a collective work on 19 April 2001, with a party on the pavement. Over the years the artist replace…
5
The Bridge to Barracas al Sud
You have reached the end of Avenida Montes de Oca, where the Pueyrredón Bridge crosses the Riachuelo. The other side is no longer the city of Buenos Aires: it is Avellaneda, in Buenos Aires Province. Look at the dark water passing below.
For centuries this was the main crossing to the south. Ox carts loaded with hides and livestock came in from the countryside here, which is why warehouses, slaughterhouses and salting plants grew up on both banks.
A saladero was a factory for salted dried beef, called tasajo, sold mainly to feed enslaved people in Brazil and Cuba. Thousands of animals were s…
6
The Scots' Espadrille Factory
You are in front of the huge brick building on Avenida Regimiento de Patricios, around number 1053. It takes up an entire block. This was the Alpargatas factory, one of Argentina's most emblematic industries.
The alpargata, the espadrille, was the shoe of workers in the countryside and the city: canvas uppers and a braided jute sole, cheap and cool. In 1885 Juan Echegaray, a manufacturer of Basque origin, went into partnership with Robert Fraser, from a Scottish family in Arbroath that made jute cloth. Together they began producing espadrilles on an industrial scale.
The Barracas factory bec…
7
The City's Most Battered River
You are at the Vuelta de Rocha, the bend of the Riachuelo where Barracas ends and La Boca begins. Look at the water, the hulks of old boats and, behind them, the corrugated iron houses painted in bright colours. This was the first port of Buenos Aires.
The Riachuelo is the last stretch of the Matanza River, which rises in the Buenos Aires countryside and runs about sixty kilometres before flowing into the River Plate, very close to here. Millions of people live in its basin.
For more than a century and a half it took in waste from salting plants, tanneries, meatpacking plants, chemical facto…
8
The Transporter Bridge and the Meatpacking Plants
Look up. Above you is the Nicolás Avellaneda Transporter Bridge, a black iron structure with two very tall towers joined by a girder. On the city side is La Boca; on the other, Isla Maciel, in Avellaneda.
This is no ordinary bridge. A gondola hung beneath the girder, a platform that slid from one bank to the other carrying people, carts and vehicles without blocking river traffic. It was made in the United Kingdom, shipped over in pieces and inaugurated in 1914 for the Southern Railway.
It ran until the 1960s, when the newer bridge alongside made it redundant. For decades it stood still and …
9
Pompeya and the Flood
You are in Nueva Pompeya, in front of the sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, on Avenida Sáenz. Look at its pointed neo-Gothic tower. It is the heart of the neighbourhood, run by Capuchin friars.
The district took its name from this church, dedicated to the Virgin of the sanctuary of Pompeii in Italy. At the end of the nineteenth century this was the city's edge: low land by the Riachuelo, brick kilns, rubbish burning, slaughterhouses and tanneries.
Tanning was an especially harsh trade. Lime, acids and, later, chromium were used to cure the hides. The waste went into the river, …
10
Puente Alsina, Gateway to the South
In front of you is the Puente Alsina, which crosses the Riachuelo between Nueva Pompeya and the town of Valentín Alsina, in Lanús. Look at its towers and balconies in neo-colonial style, like a Spanish fortress. It seems out of place among lorries and factories.
There have been bridges at this crossing since the mid nineteenth century. The first, made of wood, were swept away by floods. Then came one of hardwood, later one of iron, and finally this one, inaugurated on 26 November 1938.
For years it officially bore the name of General José Félix Uriburu, the officer who led the 1930 coup d'ét…
11
The Cattle Market
You are in Mataderos, in front of the arched arcade and tower of the former Liniers Cattle Market, at the corner of Lisandro de la Torre and Avenida de los Corrales. This is not Barracas, but it is the end of the same story: the story of meat.
After the yellow fever and complaints about pollution, the city decided to move the slaughterhouses out of the south and concentrate them far away, at the western edge. The foundation stone of this complex was laid in 1889, and the market began operating in 1901.
For more than a century it was the most important cattle market in the country, and its pr…
12
The Factory Its Workers Would Not Let Close
You are in front of IMPA, at Querandíes 4290, in Almagro. Look at the facade of the industrial building, with the cooperative's banners and murals. Inside, aluminium is still worked, and there is also a cultural centre, a museum and a school.
IMPA was a large metalworks, Industria Metalúrgica y Plástica Argentina, which made aluminium containers and parts for the whole country. In the 1990s, with economic liberalisation and mounting debts, the company was gradually stripped and the owners stopped paying.
In 1998 the workers occupied the plant to stop it from closing and organised themselves …
How long does the "Barracas: Buenos Aires' Industrial South, from Salting Houses to Worker-Run Factories" audio tour take?
It has about 24 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 36.93 km walking route (~9 h 15 min on foot). Plan roughly 9 h 45 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Bluff Where the South Begins" (coordinates -34.6288, -58.3695). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Buenos Aires and pick "Barracas: Buenos Aires' Industrial South, from Salting Houses to Worker-Run Factories". No account required to start.
