In 1871 yellow fever killed some fourteen thousand people in Buenos Aires, and it started in a tenement in San Telmo. Wealthy families, already drifting north, finished leaving, and their mansions were split into rented rooms for immigrants. That abandonment, and the neighbours' fight a century later, saved the oldest district in the city. Twelve stops between Mafalda's corner, the tunnels of El Zanjón de Granados, the narrowest house in town, the old tango store, the iron market of 1897, the square of the Sunday fair, the Jesuit church, the mansion that became a tenement, the street of the epidemic, the blue domes of the Russian church, the park where the city may have been born and the museum that kept San Martín's sabre. Approximate audio duration: 23 minutes.
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San Telmo: el barrio que se quedó cuando los ricos huyeron de la fiebre amarilla
En 1871 la fiebre amarilla mató a cerca de catorce mil porteños, y empezó en un conventillo de San Telmo. Las familias acomodadas, que ya miraban hacia el norte, terminaron de irse, y sus casonas se partieron en piezas de alquiler para inmigrantes. Ese abandono, y la lucha de los vecinos un siglo después, salvaron el barrio más antiguo de Buenos Aires. Doce paradas entre la esquina de Mafalda, los túneles del Zanjón de Granados, la casa más angosta de la ciudad, la tanguería del viejo almacén, el mercado de hierro de 1897, la plaza de la feria, la iglesia de los jesuitas, la mansión que se volvió conventillo, la calle de la epidemia, las cúpulas azules de la iglesia rusa, el parque donde quizá nació la ciudad y el museo que guardó el sable de San Martín. Duración aproximada de audio: 23 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~23 min of audio · 1.83 km on foot (~25 min walking) · about 1 h in total
You are standing at the corner of Defensa and Chile. On a bench sits Mafalda, the little girl who hated soup and worried about the world. Next to her are her friends Susanita and Manolito.
The statue dates from 2009 and is the work of sculptor Pablo Irrgang. It is here because Quino, Mafalda's creator, lived a few metres away on Calle Chile. The strip ran from 1964 to 1973 and was translated into dozens of languages.
Now look at the street running south. This is Defensa, one of the oldest streets in Buenos Aires. Its name recalls July 1807, when the locals drove back the second British invas…
2
El Zanjón: a City Buried Under a House
You are in front of Defensa 755, a house with an Italianate facade and courtyards dating from the first half of the nineteenth century. It is known as El Zanjón de Granados. The most interesting part cannot be seen from the pavement: it lies underneath.
This plot was part of the southernmost block of the city that Juan de Garay laid out in 1580. A stream ran through here down to the river, a ditch that turned into a torrent whenever it rained.
Over time the stream was covered with brick vaults and people built on top of it. The house you see belonged to a well-off family. According to the si…
3
The Casa Mínima and a Legend That Was Not True
You are in the San Lorenzo passage, in front of number 380. Look at that facade with a single door and a tiny balcony above it. This is the Casa Mínima: about two and a half metres wide and some thirteen metres deep.
It was built in the early nineteenth century and is considered the narrowest house in Buenos Aires. For decades, guides told the same story about it.
The legend said that a freed slave lived here, and that his former master had given him this sliver of land beside his own house. It is a lovely story. But there are no documents to back it up.
The architect José María Peña, one o…
4
El Viejo Almacén: from Hospital to Temple of Tango
You are at the corner of Balcarce and Independencia. Look at that low house with thick walls and a colonial look. This is El Viejo Almacén, one of the oldest buildings still standing in the district.
Nobody knows exactly when it was built. Sources speak of the late eighteenth century. What is known is that it lived many lives, like almost everything in San Telmo.
In the 1840s the British Hospital, serving the city's English community, operated here. Later the building was taken over by customs offices. Remember that the river was only a few blocks away.
In the twentieth century it was a gen…
5
The Iron Market for the New Arrivals
You are in front of the San Telmo Market, which fills almost the whole block between Defensa, Carlos Calvo, Bolívar and Estados Unidos. Step inside and look up: iron columns, sheet metal, glass and a great central structure.
It opened in February 1897. The design is attributed to Juan Antonio Buschiazzo, an Italian-born architect who came to Argentina as a child and was among the first to qualify in Buenos Aires.
Why such a big market in a district the rich had already abandoned? Precisely because of that. In the late nineteenth century tens of thousands of immigrants arrived in Buenos Aires…
6
Plaza Dorrego: the Fair That Woke the District
You are in Plaza Dorrego, at the corner of Defensa and Humberto Primo. It is small, ringed by bars with tables outside and low houses with iron balconies. This is the heart of San Telmo.
It is named after Manuel Dorrego, governor of Buenos Aires, executed by firing squad in December 1828 on the orders of Juan Lavalle, in the middle of the war between Unitarians and Federalists. His death opened years of political violence.
For decades this square was the centre of a run-down district. The tenements were full, the old mansions were slowly crumbling, and the city grew north and west without a …
7
San Pedro Telmo: the Sailors' Saint
You are in front of the parish church of San Pedro González Telmo, at Humberto Primo 340. Look at its two towers and the white facade laden with ornament. It is one of the oldest churches in Buenos Aires, and it gave the district its name.
Saint Peter González Telmo was a thirteenth-century Spanish Dominican friar, patron saint of sailors. That is no accident: this area stood on the cliff above the river, and many of its residents made their living from the port and the water.
Construction began in 1734 under the Jesuits, as part of a complex that included a school and a house for spiritual …
8
Pasaje de la Defensa: from Mansion to Tenement
You are at Defensa 1179, at the entrance to the Pasaje de la Defensa. Go in and walk slowly. You will pass through one courtyard after another, with galleries, stairways and doors opening onto high-ceilinged rooms.
This house was built in the 1870s as the residence of the Ezeiza family, in the Italianate style. It was planned in three parts: rooms for receiving guests at the front, family life in the middle, and the servants at the back.
Notice the date. It went up after the yellow fever had already struck. The exodus to the north did not happen overnight: it took years, and some families st…
9
1871: the Fever That Emptied the South
You are walking along Defensa south of Avenida San Juan. The houses are lower and more worn. Picture this same stretch in the summer of 1871: dirt or cobbled streets, ditches, wells and cesspits side by side.
In January that year doctors diagnosed the first cases of yellow fever in a tenement in San Telmo. The news was kept quiet and carnival went ahead. By March the city was terrified.
Some fourteen thousand people died, in a city of fewer than two hundred thousand. On some days more than five hundred died. The cemeteries could not cope, and a new one was opened at Chacarita to bury the vic…
10
Blue Domes Facing the Park
You are on Avenida Brasil, facing Lezama Park. Look across the street: five blue onion domes sprinkled with golden stars. It looks like a piece of Moscow dropped into San Telmo.
This is the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, of the Russian Orthodox Church. It opened its doors in 1901 and is considered the first Orthodox church built in South America. It is a National Historic Monument.
The design came from Saint Petersburg, by the architect Mikhail Preobrazhensky, inspired by seventeenth-century Moscow churches. In Buenos Aires it was adapted and directed by Alejandro Christophersen, one of…
11
Lezama Park: Where It All May Have Begun
You are in Lezama Park, at the corner of Brasil and Defensa. Walk in and feel the ground slope down. That slope is the old river cliff: before the port landfills, the water came much closer to here.
Look for the monument to Pedro de Mendoza. In 1536 this Spanish conquistador founded a first settlement called Santa María del Buen Ayre, on the banks of the Río de la Plata. Tradition places it in this area, although no one knows the exact spot.
That first Buenos Aires was a disaster. Hunger, disease and attacks. The settlers abandoned it in 1541. The permanent city was founded by Juan de Garay …
12
The Lezama House and San Martín's Sabre
You are in front of the old Lezama family house, Italianate in style, with its lookout tower. From up there you could see the river. Today it is the National History Museum.
The museum was founded in 1889, driven by the historian Adolfo Carranza, to gather objects from independence and the history of Argentina. In 1897 it moved into this house, which the city had bought together with the park.
That same year its most famous piece arrived from London: the curved sabre of José de San Martín. The general had left it in his will to Juan Manuel de Rosas. Manuelita, Rosas's daughter, agreed to don…
How long does the "San Telmo: the Neighbourhood Left Behind When the Rich Fled the Yellow Fever" audio tour take?
It has about 23 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 1.83 km walking route (~25 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, "Defensa and Chile: the Gateway to the Old Quarter" (coordinates -34.61595, -58.3714). 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 "San Telmo: the Neighbourhood Left Behind When the Rich Fled the Yellow Fever". No account required to start.
