Words and photos by Matt Dursum
Few buildings in downtown Buenos Aires stand out as poignantly as the Department of Social Services building on Avenida 9 de Julio. On its south-facing facade is a jubilant looking image of Evita Peron, facing towards the working-class neighborhoods south of the port area. On its northern side stands an image of Evita speaking intensely into a microphone, as if lecturing the elite in the north and staring directly at the neighborhood known as Recoleta.
Recoleta grew around the former Recollect Convent of Franciscans, near the present day Recoleta Cemetery. After remaining a small enclave for most of the 19th century, it flourished during the bountiful heydays of the early 1900s in Argentina. The neighborhood grew after the yellow fever outbreak downtown began forcing people to leave their homes and move somewhere else. The rich moved north of downtown and soon began constructing opulent palaces and estates throughout the new neighborhood around the Franciscan convent.
Today Recoleta is a dynamic neighborhood famous for its boutique leather shops, high-end retail stores, museums, parks, and architecture. Many of the city’s most acclaimed bars and restaurants like Aramburu and Alvear Roof Bar are here as well as affordable staples like Olivino Empanadas.
Like any other neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Recoleta’s charm lives in the people who live and work here. From the neighborhood fruit vendors to the small boutiques, there’s still a palpable local energy that supersedes the plush exterior.
The Union of Two Worlds
Sprawling out from the Monument to Bartolomé Mitre is a series of narrow streets and avenues. At one point, the neighborhood became a blank canvas for architectural expression, helping Buenos Aires earn the moniker of Paris of the South.
Recoleta is where the city’s elite have always set their sights. Its high rises were built by some of Europe’s top architects. They form towering walls of Neo-classical and Beaux arts masterpieces, especially down Avenida Alvear. But, not all the neighborhood basks in opulence.
Just north of the glimmering facades and high-end storefronts is one of Buenos Aires’ most notorious informal settlements, Villa 31, also known as Barrio Padre Mugica. Separated by Padre Mugica road and the tracks of Retiro Station, the area is dense with half hazard brick buildings stacked like bricks. Both sides of the neighborhood overlook each other like a mirror showing two realities, both very much representing life in Buenos Aires.
Top Sights
The preferable way to get around Recoleta is to walk. Everyday people from around the city come here to stroll amongst the beautiful courtyards, parks, and classic buildings. There are fewer hassles than downtown yet plenty of fantastic sights and experiences.
Recoleta Cemetery
It seems everyone influential, from athletes, heroes, controversial generals, to Santa Evita herself, are buried in this urban cemetery. Like a city inside a city, Recoleta Cemetery is an experience like nothing else. The deceased lie in elaborate sarcophaguses and mausoleums erected alongside each other. It can take a full day to traverse the cemetery’s alleyways.
Nextdoor is the fantastic Centro Cultural Recoleta performance center. In this newly renovated space are performances of modern dance, art exhibits, and other fun cultural events.
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
Since 1933, this museum has housed some of the continent’s best collections of fine art. The museum is free to enter. It has two floors of art spanning from internationally renowned painters like Monet and Rembrant to Argentine painters like Cándido López.
Floralis Genérica
It’s hard to miss this landmark when walking or driving down Avenida Presidente Figueroa Alcorta. This sizable stainless steel flower monument glistens in the daytime sun and lit up at night by a soft light. Artist and designer Eduardo Catalano built it to represent optimism for the future. To make the realism of his flower come to life, he had the mechanism’s petals open and close in line with the sunrise and sunset.
Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno
Few buildings in Buenos Aires trigger as much controversy as the National Library. The Ministry of Culture had the library built over the destroyed Unzué Palace, the stately former residence of president Péron and Evita.
The building’s construction began in 1962, and it was finally opened to the public in 1992. It’s an example of the brutalist architectural style popularized in the 1950s, with barren and angular facades and exposed concrete.
Plaza Dr. Bernardo Houssay
Far off from the typical tourist trail, this plaza stands at the foot of the large faculty buildings for the medical branches of the University of Buenos Aires. A group of architects designed the space in 1975 as a gathering space honoring the Nobel Prize winning doctor Bernardo A Houssay.
Recoleta’s Green Spaces
As charming as the neighborhood’s architecture is, Recoleta’s parks receive the most adoration. Starting at Plaza Oriental Republic of Uruguay is a series of manicured gardens and public open spaces.
The most famous of these are the green spaces bordering the Recoleta cemetery and Avenida Alvear. Here is where the popular Feria de Recoleta takes place, drawing in crowds of shoppers every weekend.
Like other parks in Buenos Aires, people come to relax in the grass and enjoy yerba mate with friends and family. In Recoleta, you can absorb yourself into the city’s parklife while surrounded by some of the city’s most iconic architecture.