In 1880, as national troops and the forces of Buenos Aires province fought on the edge of the city, President Avellaneda moved his government to a neighbouring town, Belgrano, and Congress met there for months. In its town hall the law was passed that made Buenos Aires the federal capital. Twelve stops between the station of the letter C, Chinatown, a sculptor's house, the bluffs that were once the riverbank, the bandstand where people dance tango, the old town square, the round church, the building where Congress sat, the corner of the annexation, the house of a novelist in love with Spain, Avenida Cabildo and the English streets of Belgrano R. Approximate audio duration: 19 minutes.
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Belgrano: el pueblo de las afueras que fue capital de la Argentina
En 1880, mientras las tropas del gobierno nacional y las de la provincia de Buenos Aires se enfrentaban en las afueras de la ciudad, el presidente Avellaneda instaló su gobierno en un pueblo vecino, Belgrano, y el Congreso sesionó allí durante meses. En esa municipalidad se votó la ley que convirtió a Buenos Aires en capital federal. Doce paradas entre la estación de la letra C, el barrio chino, la casa de un escultor, las barrancas que fueron costa del río, la glorieta donde se baila tango, la plaza del viejo pueblo, la iglesia redonda, el edificio donde sesionó el Congreso, la esquina de la anexión, la casa del novelista enamorado de España, la avenida Cabildo y las calles inglesas de Belgrano R. Duración aproximada de audio: 19 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~19 min of audio · 3.4 km on foot (~50 min walking) · about 1 h 15 min in total
You are standing in front of Belgrano C station, on Juramento street. Look at the sign: that letter C is not decoration. It is a trace of a time when Belgrano was not a neighbourhood, but a separate town.
Belgrano was founded in 1855 as a settlement on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. It was named after Manuel Belgrano, the man who created the Argentine flag. It was a land of country estates, summer houses and families escaping the epidemics of the city centre.
What woke it up was the railway. In the 1860s the Northern Railway arrived, and suddenly the town was a short ride from Plaza de Mayo.…
2
Chinatown by the Tracks
You are on Arribeños street, right beside the tracks. Look at the signs in Chinese characters, the red lanterns, the gateway marking the entrance. This is the Chinatown of Buenos Aires.
It is a young neighbourhood. It began to take shape in the 1980s, with immigrants mostly from Taiwan. Later came families from mainland China.
They settled in a few blocks around the station. They opened supermarkets, tea houses, restaurants and shops selling imported goods.
Very close by, on Montañeses street, there is a Buddhist temple. The neighbourhood is not only about trade: it is also a religious and …
3
The House of the Sculptor of Labour
You are in front of a neo-colonial mansion on the corner of O'Higgins and Blanco Encalada. Notice the iron grilles, the white walls, the garden. The sculptor Rogelio Yrurtia lived and worked here.
Yrurtia was born in 1879 and became one of Argentina's great sculptors. His most famous work stands on Paseo Colón: the Song to Labour, a group of bronze figures pushing an enormous load together.
He also made the mausoleum of Bernardino Rivadavia in Plaza Miserere. He worked in bronze on a monumental scale.
He lived in this house with his wife, the painter Lía Correa Morales. Inside were the stud…
4
The Bluffs Where the River Once Reached
You are in the Barrancas de Belgrano, the Belgrano bluffs. Look at the ground: it slopes down towards the river side. No landscape designer made that drop. It is the old shoreline of the Río de la Plata.
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the water came almost to the foot of this bluff. From the top, the townspeople could see the river.
Then came the railway embankments and the landfill. The shore moved further and further away, and today the river is more than a kilometre from here.
At the end of the nineteenth century the French landscape architect Carlos Thays designed this park…
5
The Bandstand Where People Dance Tango
You are in front of the bandstand of the Barrancas, a round roofed structure open on every side. It bears the name of Antonio Malvagni, a local musician.
Bandstands like this became fashionable in parks in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They were built so that bands could play on Sundays.
Today this one has another use, and it is known across the city. Many weekends, at dusk, an open-air milonga, a tango dance, takes place here.
Picture the scene: speakers playing old tangos, couples of all ages turning on the floor, neighbours and visitors watching from the steps.
You …
6
The Square of the Old Town
You are in Plaza Manuel Belgrano, bounded by Juramento, Cuba, Echeverría and Vuelta de Obligado. Look around: a round church, a public building with columns, old mansions. This was the centre of the town.
As in any town of Spanish tradition, everything was organised around the square. On one side the church, on the other the town hall.
At weekends it fills with craft stalls. It is one of the best known fairs in the north of the city.
Now go back to 1880. Argentina had a problem that had been unresolved for decades: the city of Buenos Aires belonged to the province of Buenos Aires, and the n…
7
La Redonda, the Round Church
You are in front of the parish church of the Immaculate Conception. Look at its shape: it is not a long nave like almost every other church, but a cylinder with a dome. That is why everyone in the neighbourhood calls it La Redonda, the Round One.
Notice the portico of columns and the triangular pediment. It recalls a classical temple, in the manner of the Pantheon in Rome.
It was designed by the architects Nicolás and José Canale, father and son, Italians settled in Buenos Aires. It opened in 1878.
So when the crisis of 1880 broke out, this church was barely two years old. It was the pride …
8
The Building Where Congress Sat
You are in front of the Museo Histórico Sarmiento, at Juramento 2180. Look at the façade: columns, pediment, steps. It seems too solemn for a town of country houses. And it was.
This building went up in the early 1870s as Belgrano's town hall. It was designed by the architect Juan Antonio Buschiazzo.
In June 1880, with the city of Buenos Aires in the hands of Tejedor's forces, President Nicolás Avellaneda left the city. He set up his government in Belgrano, at the time a town of the province, but loyal to the nation.
And Congress followed him. The deputies and senators who backed the nation…
9
The Law That Made Buenos Aires the Capital
You are still on the corner of Juramento and Cuba. Look at the town hall again. Inside, an argument that had lasted more than half a century was settled.
Since independence, the provinces and Buenos Aires had fought over the city: its port, its customs house, its wealth. Whole civil wars were fought over that question.
After the June fighting, Tejedor resigned and the province was defeated. On 24 August 1880 Avellaneda sent Congress a bill declaring the city of Buenos Aires capital of the Republic.
Congress, sitting in Belgrano, approved it on 21 September 1880. It is Law 1029, the federali…
10
The House of the Novelist in Love with Spain
You are in front of the Enrique Larreta Museum of Spanish Art, at Juramento 2291. Look at the white walls, the iron grilles, the wooden gate. It looks like a house from Andalusia in the middle of Buenos Aires.
Enrique Larreta was a writer and diplomat. In 1908 he published The Glory of Don Ramiro, a novel set in the Ávila of Philip II. It was a huge success across the Spanish speaking world.
He was also Argentina's ambassador to France during the years of the First World War. He collected Spanish art passionately: religious carvings, furniture, tapestries, altarpieces.
The house came from t…
11
From Town to Neighbourhood: Avenida Cabildo
You are on the corner of Cabildo and Juramento. Look at the contrast with the square you left behind: buses, shop windows, tall buildings, people in a hurry. This is Avenida Cabildo, the backbone of Belgrano.
The old road leaving Buenos Aires towards the north ran through here. The town grew along that road.
After 1880 Belgrano stopped being the seat of government, but it remained a town of the province. For a few years the boundary of the new federal capital ran very close by.
In 1887 the province also ceded Belgrano and Flores to the capital. The city limits were extended, and the old tow…
12
Belgrano R, the Neighbourhood of the English Railwaymen
You are in the streets of Belgrano R. Look around: wide pavements, trees forming tunnels, houses with steep tiled roofs, front gardens. This is another Belgrano, quieter.
The R comes from the Buenos Aires to Rosario Railway, the British company whose line ran through here at the end of the nineteenth century. Like the C of the station where we began, it is a letter that stuck to the neighbourhood.
Railway employees and managers settled around the station, many of them British. They brought their way of building: chalets of exposed brick, pitched roofs, English style gardens.
They also broug…
How long does the "Belgrano: the Country Town That Became Argentina's Capital" audio tour take?
It has about 19 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 3.4 km walking route (~50 min on foot). Plan roughly 1 h 15 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Station of the Letter C" (coordinates -34.5616, -58.4507). 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 "Belgrano: the Country Town That Became Argentina's Capital". No account required to start.
