Recoleta - home of the dead

Evita's crypt

On my third day in Buenos Aires I grabbed a cab and set off to explore the neighborhood called Recoleta. This part of town is where all the rich people in Buenos Aires live. They used to live in a neighborhood called San Telmo closer to the harbor, but a yellow fever epidemic in the 1870s made them relocate further north to Recoleta. The main thing to see and do and why most tourists come to this part of town is the famous Cementario de la Recoleta. Entrance to the cemetery is free but in order to find the interesting graves (for Evita’s you can just follow the crowd…) it is a good idea to buy the map they sell at the entrance for 8 pesos.

The cemetery was inaugurated in 1822 and was the first public cemetery in Buenos Aires. A lot of famous Argentinean people have been buried here including presidents, politicians, military men, writers and explores but the most famous crypt and the one everyone lines up to see is the crypt holding the remains of María Eva Duarte de Perón, or Evita as she is commonly called. She is placed in the Duarte family’s crypt; the irony being that she is placed right among all those military men who opposed her both when she was alive and after she died.

Evita's crypt

Despite all the tourists that come to see Evita’s grave it is fairly easy to escape the crowds. The cemetery is kind of like a city within the city with lots of little streets that are lined with impressive statues and marble sarcophagi. Since many of the crypts are really old, a few of them have been damaged over the years and show visible cracks making it possible to see the actual coffins. That totally freaked me out and I was happy that I hadn’t just watched some zombie movie to really send my imagination running wild. The only living things inhabiting the cemetery are the cats though. Lots and lots of cats. But I still wouldn’t want to walk around there at night…

A deserted street in the cemetery

Cat keeping watch at the cemetery

To ease my return back into the world of the living after the cemetery, I went a little further north to a park, where there is a large metal flower called Floralis Generica placed in the middle of a reflecting pool. It is massive. It is 23 meters high and when the petals are open it has a diameter of 32 meters. The giant metal petals close up at night and open each morning to symbolize a hope that is reborn each day.

Floralis Generica