Recoleta, Buenos Aires

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This is a historical must see site, a burial ground featuring ostentatious tombs and including the final burial place of Eva Peron. It is well-known, so in my tip I would like to focus on photographing in the cemetery. This can be place with severe contrasts along the avenues of tombs, bright light on one side and dark shadows on the other. It works to be here at mid-day to avoid this situation. You will also need a zoom lens with wide-angle and telephoto capability. There are lots of people around, but if you're patient then the shots will be there. Last, remember that this is a graveyard, so be respectful while there.

Collections: Prize-winning works from the National Salons (1911-1998) - Plastic Arts (Painting and Sculpture, 423 works), Engraving and Drawing (191 works), Textile Art (42 works), Ceramic Art (62 works) and Photography (62 works).
Activities: Temporary exhibits of national and international Contemporary Art.

Patrimonio: Obras premiadas de los Salones Nacionales (1911-1998): Artes Plasticas (Pintura y Escultura, 423 obras); Grabado y Dibujo (191 obras); Arte Textil (42 obras); Arte Ceramico (62 obras), y Fotografia (62 obras).
Actividades: Exposiciones temporarias de Arte Contemporaneo nacionales y extranjeras.

Visitas a la exposicion; Sábados: 17 y 18 hs.
Visitas para grupos durante la semana con cita previa.

Las visitas ofrecen una propuesta de carácter informativo y reflexivo que facilitan el contacto del público con las obras. La guía a cargo brinda información sobre las técnicas y proporciona ejes para la reflexión en torno a las obras.
Reservas e informes: 4801-0450 (Lunes a viernes de 10 a 16 hs.).

Martes a viernes de 12 a 20 hs. Sábados y domingos de 10 a 20 hs.
Entrada libre y gratuita.

Tuesdays to fridays from 12 pm to 8 pm. Saturdays and sundays from 10 am to 8 pm
Free entrance

Recoleta is the neighborhood which reflects “old” Buenos Aires the best. The architecture is heavily influenced by French classic designs, and century-old buildings and residential properties litter the area, giving Recoleta a formal and classy gravitas. Recoleta is where the wealthy people of Buenos Aires used to congregate.

Arguably the most well known feature of Recoleta is the cemetery, which is the final resting place of Argentine luminaries, such as former presidents Bartolomé Mitre and Hipólito Yrigoyen, and of course, one of the most famous women of all time, Eva Perón. Tourists flock to this area, either to pay their respects or simply gawk in morbid curiosity.

The Alvear Palace hotel is in Recoleta, at Avenida Alvear. This luxurious hotel exemplifies the area, built in 1932; it has had guests such as Arthur Miller, Sean Connery, and Nelson Mandela. The affluent area also attracts local celebrity residents such as quirky singer Charly García. Dotted with plazas and monuments, Recoleta is a tranquil and worthwhile place to discover.

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Feria Artesanal de la Recoleta features top quality crafts. It takes place in Plaza Francia and has become the city's largest fair, completely taking over all the walkways in the area. Even the Recoleta Cemetery's church gets involved by setting up tables of postcards and religious souvenirs in its courtyard.

You'll find every imaginable souvenir and craft in addition to food. Artisans sell handmade clothes and knitwear, jewelry, housewares as well as more traditional arts and crafts here. It's a nice place to buy presents, traditional mate cups, paintings or just anything you like. This fair is a very typical promenade for locals and visitors. People meet to play music, sip mate and have a good time.

It is open Sat & Sun 10am-6pm

The elegant shopping centre Buenos Aires Design, located behind the Cementerio de la Recoleta, is the first and only shopping centre in Buenos Aires, entirely devoted to design and decor. It houses several shops offering high quality design items, almost all of them produced in Argentina, from traditional arts, funky, eclectic pillow and furniture, bathroom accessories and tiling to carpets and much more. The best of all is Tienda Puro Diseño Argentino, a shop where more than 120 designers contribute.

In the first floor there are splendid 3000 m2 terraces called Terrazas, a section of luxurious restaurants and bars. It's also a pleasant place to relax and have a coffee, an ideal outdoors space to enjoy along with the best view of Recoleta. There are often changing sculpture exhibitions in the gardens. One of the attractions is also Hard Rock Cafe, the first Latin-American branch of the well-known international chain, and in addition, you find Buenos Aires Auditorium, a huge space for social, cultural and artistic events.

Shops are open Mon-Sat 10am-9pm, Sun 12am-9pm and restaurants and bars Mon-Sun 10am-2am

An upmarket bario which took its name after Barefoot Recoletos Monks that made this area thier home in the early 1700s. There is a lot of French influences which are reflected in the in the archecture such as the Palais de Glace. Visitors are drawn to a number of museums, art galleries, cultural centres and sculptures and momuments that commemorate key figures and influences in Argentine history. La Recoleta cemetery is the main attraction for many visitors visiting the bario.

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Recoleta is one of the most distinguished areas in Buenos Aires and visited by a lot of tourists. Most of them come for the ‘must see’ Cemetery of Recoleta. But there are also a lot of art galleries and museums and Avenida Alvear is a shopping paradise with upscale shops. Plaza de Recoleta offers shops and a food court and is located close to the cemetery.

We had the best impression of the cemetery from the 14th floor of Hotel Etoile, opposite the cemetery at the pedestrian mall Pte. RM Ortiz. During our first visit we had a ‘café chico’ (although during our last visit in 2009 we didn't notice the cafe any longer) and a great view over Recoleta Cemetery, the city and the Rio de la Plata. Just walk into the hotel and take the elevator to the 14th floor (did read this tip on VT !!).

The cemetery itself is like a small village with narrow streets surrounded by monuments, memorials, mausoleums and tombs of all kinds and sizes. It is amazing to realise there are almost 6500 mausoleums/tombs on such a small piece of earth. At the entrance is a plan and it was easy to find the tomb of Eva Peron. As (almost) every visitor wants to visit at least this tomb of the Duarte family.

We walked along some ‘streets’ of this city of the dead and it is surprising to see the different tombs and mausoleums with plaques on the walls, but also with flowering trees. The cemetery seems to be a tourist highlight, but when a funeral procession was passing by, we realised it is still a public cemetery.

Openinghours: daily from 8 am till 6 pm.

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Outside of the walled city is a huge area bursting with life. Street Artists vie with Street Sellers to attract your attention. This is the Plaza Francia and bright flowers and ornate handmade crafts cover a huge area. Now just step a few feet past this explosion of colour, inside the walls, and enter the CITY OF THE DEAD. Not a town, but a City full of buildings, tree lined avenues and side streets packed with people. The past residents of Buenos Aires. In fact the Social Elite of Argentina. A veritable Who's Who of rich businessmen, politicians, artists, and the other Aristocracy of this Latin land. It is a cold, grey and austere city. Yet, it is compelling to walk its tombed streets.

No cemetery on earth is like it. There are not single graves, but mausoleums rivalling modern office buildings. Many are multi-story and enough have doors and windows so that you can see the stairs leading not just down, but often up. Many of these buildings are marked only by the family name on the outside. The local culture of life and death is enshrined here. Many plaques only have the date of death, not birth.
Also, it is a Latin American tradition for females to keep the family name even after marriage. So you will find the city's most well known resident in the mausoleum marked 'FAMILA DUARTE'. The larger avenues are peppered with statues to the great, the good and the powerful. In many societies the powerful are humbled in death and little remembered. Here, they keep their status and grandeur. The marble and stone buildings a final acknowledgement of family wealth.

Wander to the left and chase a few of the resident cats to find what you came to see - the final resting arrangements of Evita Perón. Actress, Champion of the sick & poor, wife to a President and Politician in her own right. Separated only in death, she is buried in the Duarte family crypt. Her husband is strangely not even in Recoleta.

And now flee through the gates - you are suddenly back in the Plaza Francia with all of its vibrant activities of life.

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Opposite the Recoleta Square and Nuestra Senora de Pilar- parish lies the famous cemetery,where the graves and mausoleums of many influential and important persons can be visited.
Eva Peron, the wife of former president Peron is buried in the tomb of the DUARTE-family (her maiden-name), as her husband got again married after her dead in 1952 and his second wife did not condone her coffin to be buried in the Peron-mausoleum.
In fact Eva Peron`s coffin vanished shortly after her dead and was brought to and hidden in Milan, Italy for 16 years by the military government, that followed Peron. It is said, that the government wanted to avoid the creation of a "national heroine" after the early dead of Eva, as she already was revered and adored by the poor, thus creating a certain myth around the name of Peron, who was striving for presidency and got elected again in 1973.

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Recoleta is one of the most expensive residential neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. It is a nice area with some beautiful buildings, parks and of course Recoleta Cemetery. The area also has some interesting shops, restaurants and galleries. Many affluent hotels are in Recoletta as well as seeral foregn embassy buildings.