Cementerio de la Recoleta

Cementerio de la Recoleta review

Originally conceived by Bernardino Rivadavia and designed by Frenchman Prosper Catelin, the cemetery was opened in 1822. The narrow passages and high walls make comparisons with the real city outside inevitable. Entrance to the cemetery is through a Doric-columned portico designed in 1886 by Juan Buschiazzo, one of Argentina's most important architects.

The cemetery is home to hundreds of illustrious corpses, laid out in a compact maze of granite, marble and bronze mausoleums - most of the materials came from Paris and Milan - and a slow walk down its avenues and alleyways is one of BA's undisputed delights. Originally a public cemetery on the fringes of the city - nearby Avenida Callao marked the limit of Buenos Aires until the 1880s - it is now even harder to move into than the posh flats that surround it. Seafarers and freed slaves were once given their final berths in Recoleta, but now ordinary folk can only get in alive. Many Argentinian presidents are entombed here, though most visitors come to see the resting place of María Eva Duarte de Perón, better known as Evita.

There are also impressive collective tombs (housing fallen soldiers), great pantheons and cenotaphs, inches away from one another. Assorted architectural styles are arranged side by side, from distinguished chemist Dr Pedro Arata's diminutive Egyptian pyramid to aristocrat Dorrego Ortíz Basualdo's monumental sepulchre, decorated with 'prudent virgins' and topped by a great candelabra. Among the patrician families here, residing in a style befitting one-time mansion dwellers, are the Alvears, the Estradas, the Balcarces and the Alzagas, together with members of the Paz clan.