Where barefoot friars once kept their orchard, Buenos Aires built its first public cemetery, and around it the elite raised palaces to live in and vaults so as never quite to die. Here lie presidents, enemy warlords and the woman they hated most, after a twenty-year journey across half the world. Twelve stops between the rubber tree in the square, the church of the Recollect friars, the convent that became an asylum and then a cultural centre, the cemetery portico, the tomb of the girl of the legend, the bronze bride with her dog, the Radicals' pantheon, enemies sleeping a few metres apart, the Duarte family vault, the hotel born in the middle of the Depression, the Duhau palace and the mansion that refused to be demolished. Approximate audio duration: 23 minutes.
▸ Ver en español
La Recoleta: poder, dinero y eternidad en el barrio más exclusivo de Buenos Aires
Donde unos frailes descalzos tenían su huerta, Buenos Aires levantó su primer cementerio público, y alrededor de él la élite construyó palacios para vivir y bóvedas para no morir del todo. Acá descansan presidentes, caudillos enemigos y la mujer que más odiaron, después de un viaje de veinte años por medio mundo. Doce paradas entre el gomero de la plaza, la iglesia de los frailes recoletos, el convento que se volvió asilo y centro cultural, el pórtico del cementerio, la tumba de la joven de la leyenda, la novia de bronce con su perro, el panteón de los radicales, los enemigos que duermen a pocos metros, la bóveda de la familia Duarte, el hotel nacido en plena crisis, el palacio de los Duhau y la mansión que no se dejó demoler. Duración aproximada de audio: 23 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~23 min of audio · 2.33 km on foot (~35 min walking) · about 1 h in total
You are in Plaza Intendente Alvear, opposite the café La Biela. Look at the giant tree shading the tables: it is a rubber tree, a ficus whose branches are so long and heavy that they have had to be propped up with columns. It is one of the oldest and best-loved trees in Buenos Aires.
In the early eighteenth century all of this was countryside, on top of a bluff overlooking the River Plate. The water came almost to the foot of the slope. In 1716 a group of Franciscan friars from the Recollect branch settled here, and the place ended up taking their name.
The Recollects sought recollection in …
2
The Church of the Recollect Friars
You are in front of the Basilica of Nuestra Señora del Pilar. Look at its plain white façade, with a single tower and its clock. It is one of the oldest colonial buildings left in Buenos Aires.
It was completed in 1732, when the city was little more than a village of low houses at the southern edge of the Spanish empire. It was designed by two Italian Jesuit architects, Andrés Blanqui and Juan Bautista Prímoli, who also worked on other churches and on the city's Cabildo.
For almost a century it was the church of the Recollect friars. They prayed here, tended the orchard next door and buried …
3
From Convent to Asylum, from Asylum to Art
You are in front of the Centro Cultural Recoleta. Today it is a place for exhibitions, concerts and workshops, full of young people. But for a century these walls were the convent of the Recollect friars.
After the expulsion of 1822 the building had many lives. It was a barracks and a school. In the mid nineteenth century it became an asylum for the poor and for beggars, and later a home for the elderly.
It is a striking picture: a few metres from the marble vaults of the country's richest families lived the poorest people in the city, many of whom ended up in a common grave in another cemet…
4
The Orchard That Became a City of the Dead
You are in front of the portico of Recoleta Cemetery. Look at the Greek columns and, above them, the Latin inscription: Requiescant in pace, may they rest in peace. On the other side there are no graves in the ground, but whole streets of small temples.
The cemetery opened in November 1822, on the Recollects' orchard. It was called the Northern Cemetery and was the city's first public cemetery. Until then the dead had been buried inside or beside churches, something the governments of the day considered unhealthy.
The original layout was by the French engineer Prosper Catelin. This portico w…
5
Rufina Cambaceres and the Fear of Waking
You are in front of one of the most photographed tombs in the cemetery. Look at the marble figure of a young woman resting her hand on the door of the vault, as if about to go in, or to come out.
It is the tomb of Rufina Cambaceres, daughter of the writer Eugenio Cambaceres. She died suddenly in 1902, at nineteen. Her unexpected death gave rise to one of the best-known legends in Buenos Aires.
According to the legend, Rufina was not dead but cataleptic, and woke up inside the coffin. Days later, so the story goes, the lid was found moved and there were scratch marks on the wood. No document …
6
The Bronze Bride and Her Dog
You are in front of the vault of Liliana Crociati de Szaszak. Look at the life-size bronze statue: a young woman in a wedding dress, and beside her a dog. Notice the animal's nose, polished bright by visitors' hands.
Liliana was twenty-six when she died, in 1970. She was on her honeymoon in Austria, near Innsbruck, when an avalanche caught her. Her family brought her body back to Buenos Aires.
Her parents had this neo-Gothic vault built for her, unlike any other here. Inside, according to those who have seen it, part of her bedroom was recreated. Outside they placed the statue in the dress s…
7
The Radicals' Pantheon
You are in front of the pantheon of those who fell in the Park Revolution of 1890. Look at the monument: this is not a family vault but the vault of a political movement. Inside rest four men who shaped Argentine history.
In July 1890, in the middle of an economic crisis, a group of civilians and soldiers took up arms against the government of Miguel Juárez Celman. They dug in at the Artillery Park, where the Palace of Justice stands today. The revolution was defeated, but the president had to resign a few weeks later.
Out of that uprising came the Radical Civic Union. Its leader was Leandro…
8
Enemies a Few Metres Apart
You are in front of the tomb of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. Look at the bronze condor crowning it, wings spread, a symbol of the Andes and of freedom. Sarmiento was a teacher, journalist, writer and president of Argentina from 1868 to 1874.
Sarmiento died in 1888 in Asunción, Paraguay, and his body was brought back to Buenos Aires. He had devoted his life to public education: he believed a nation was built with schools. That is why Teachers' Day in Argentina is 11 September, the day he died.
His most famous book, Facundo, published in 1845 from exile in Chile, is a portrait of and an attack …
9
Evita: The Last Journey
You are in front of the Duarte family vault. Look at the dark marble, the bronze plaques and the fresh flowers someone leaves every day. It is a sober tomb, far more modest than the ones you have seen. And yet it is the most visited in the cemetery.
Here lies Eva Duarte de Perón, Evita. She was born in 1919 in the countryside of Buenos Aires province, the unrecognised daughter of a landowner, and came to the capital to become an actress. She married Juan Domingo Perón and, from 1946, was the most powerful first lady in Argentine history.
To workers and the poor she was a saint: she handed ou…
10
The Alvears' Avenue and the Hotel of the Crisis
You are on Avenida Alvear, in front of the Alvear Palace Hotel. Look at the pale façade, the mansard roofs, the awnings and the liveried doormen. It is the most traditional hotel in Buenos Aires and one of the symbols of the city's luxury.
The avenue is named after General Carlos María de Alvear, one of the leading figures of independence. His son was Torcuato de Alvear, the mayor of the square where we started. Father and son, avenue and square: the Alvear name is all over the district.
At the end of the nineteenth century Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world, thanks to i…
11
The Duhau Palace and the Pope's Embassy
You are in front of the Palacio Duhau. Look at the stone façade, sober and symmetrical, with its columns and tall windows. Behind it lies a terraced garden that steps down to the street at the back, making use of the slope of the old bluff.
It was built in the early 1930s by the Duhau family, owners of land and cattle. Luis Duhau became Minister of Agriculture in those years. The style imitates eighteenth-century French châteaux, a taste that in Argentina was almost compulsory for any wealthy family.
It was one of the last great private palaces in the district. Over time, keeping up a house …
12
The Palace That Refused to Be Demolished
You are in front of the Palacio Ortiz Basualdo, on the edge of Avenida 9 de Julio. Look at its dome, its balconies and its French-style façade, which seems to hang over the traffic of the widest avenue in the city.
It was built in 1912 for the Ortiz Basualdo family, another of the great landowning dynasties, by a French architect, Paul Pater. Since 1939 it has housed the Embassy of France.
In the 1970s it was decided to extend Avenida 9 de Julio northwards. That meant demolishing entire blocks, and this palace stood right in the way. The buildings around it fell one after another.
France re…
How long does the "La Recoleta: Power, Money and Eternity in Buenos Aires' Most Exclusive Quarter" audio tour take?
It has about 23 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 2.33 km walking route (~35 min on foot). Plan roughly 1 h in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Rubber Tree and the Mayor's Square" (coordinates -34.5877, -58.3915). 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 "La Recoleta: Power, Money and Eternity in Buenos Aires' Most Exclusive Quarter". No account required to start.
