When Buenos Aires was still just a small cluster of buildings on the Rio de la Plata, a group of Franciscan monks, known as the Padres Recoletos, established a chapel and retreat in an area of the countryside north of the city. The Recoleta sanctuary marked the high ground of the Río de la Plata valley, which was why, in the second part of the 19th century – with crowded living conditions and stagnant water in San Telmo giving rise to a series of plagues – Buenos Aires’ richer citizens decided to flee their former barrio and move there instead.
Recoleta, to this day, is Buenos Aires’ most elite neighborhood, and, thanks in large parts to the efforts of the 19th century French landscaping artist Charles Thay, it has also remained green – a series of parks and plazas parallel Recoleta’s wide avenues and grace its belle-époque buildings with shady tree limbs. The neighborhood is arranged according to a gradient, with the most expensive real estate in the area immediately bordering Avenida del Libertador. The residential blocks surrounding Avenida Santa Fe, meanwhile, while still firmly upper-middle class, lack the former area’s ostentatiousness and forebodingness.
For a quick glimpse of the most ornate luxury environs in Argentina – typical of Avenida del Libertador posh – take a walk down Avenida Alvear. The Alvear Palace Hotel, with its chandeliered lobbies, is an example of Recoleta’s palacio architecture and is the city’s most exclusive five-star hotel.
Plaza Francia, at the end of the avenue, is more relaxed. It’s home to a weekend handcrafted goods fair and on the weekdays is a great place to sprawl out on the grass. The Centro Cultural Recoleta, on the Plaza, houses temporary art exhibitions which are normally of minimal cost or even free, and the Recoleta Cemetery is a must-see for visitors. You can find Evita’s tomb by looking at the map by the Cemetery’s entrance gate.
Avenida Santa Fe, meanwhile, is the place in Buenos Aires to go shopping. Shoes and clothing, by Argentine and international designers, are in plentiful supply – and at a fraction of the price they would cost in your home country.
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Scott Ferree is a translator and English instructor, as well as the study abroad coordinator for the Interhispanica Language School in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The school is located in the Recoleta neighborhood, near Avenida Santa Fe:
www.interhispanica.com.ar
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