7 Best Sights in Recoleta, Buenos Aires

The ominous gates and labyrinthine paths of the city's oldest cemetery, founded in 1822, is the final resting place for the nation's most illustrious figures. Covering 13½ acres and said to be the most expensive real estate in town, the cemetery has more than 6,400 elaborate vaulted tombs and majestic mausoleums, 70 of which have been declared historic monuments. Architectural styles run the gamut from chapels to Greek temples to pyramids to art deco and miniature mansions. The biggest name is Eva Duarte de Perón, after 17 years of posthumous wandering, found in the Duarte family vault. Other highlights include the tombs of landowner Dorrego Ortíz Basualdo, who resides in Recoleta's most monumental sepulcher, complete with chandelier, and Rufina Cambaceres, the girl who died twice. Entombed on her 19th birthday in 1902, she awoke inside her casket and clawed the top open, dying of a heart attack before she could be rescued. The names of many key players in Argentina's history are chiseled over other sumptuous mausoleums: Alvear, Quintana, Sáenz Peña, Lavalle, Sarmiento. There are guides for hire at the entrance or the administrative office can provide a free photocopied map if you wish to wander at your own pace. On weekends catch the open-air market known as La Feria de Artesanos de Plaza Francia outside the cemetery. It's usually teeming with shoppers eager to stock up on quality crafts.

The world's largest collection of Argentine art is contained in this neoclassical wine-color building, which once housed the city's waterworks. Here, you can see many lesser works by big-name European artists from the 12th through 20th centuries, and the MNBA also hosts high-profile temporary exhibitions on its refurbished second floor. The European collection and 19th-century Argentine works are on display in the 24 ground-floor galleries; highlights include Cándido López's panoramic battle scenes, which he painted with his left hand after losing his right arm in the 1870s during the War of the Triple Alliance. His work spearheaded contemporary primitive painting and is showcased in Gallery 23. A whole room (Gallery 8) is given over to European master Goya’s dark, disturbing works. The room behind the entrance hall (Gallery 10) contains Rodin sculptures. The right wing includes paintings by Manet, Degas, Monet, Pissarro, Gaugin, and Toulouse-Lautrec. The large modern pavilion behind the museum also hosts excellent temporary exhibitions, often showcasing top local artists little known outside Argentina. Free one-hour guided visits in English are offered on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at 12:30, and Saturday at 2.

This basilica beside the famous Cementerio de la Recoleta is where Buenos Aires' elite families hold weddings and other ceremonies. Built by the Recoleto friars in 1732, it is a national treasure for its six German baroque–style altars. The central one is overlaid with Peruvian engraved silver; another, sent by Spain's King Carlos III, contains relics. The basilica's cloisters house the Museo de los Claustros del Pilar, a small museum that displays religious artifacts as well as pictures and photographs documenting Recoleta's evolution. There are excellent views of the cemetery from upstairs windows.

Art exhibitions, concerts, fringe theater performances, and workshops are some of the offerings at this cultural center; one must-visit is Fuerza Bruta, a fantastic water and acrobatics collective that pops up in summer and for one-off shows. The rambling building it occupies was converted from the cloister patios of the Franciscan monks.

Each weekend, artisans sell handmade clothes, jewelry, and housewares as well as traditional crafts at this sprawling open-air market that winds through several linked squares outside the Recoleta Cemetery.

The gleaming steel and aluminum petals of this giant flower look very space age, perhaps because they were commissioned from the Lockheed airplane factory by architect Eduardo Catalano, who designed and paid for the monument. The 66-foot-high structure opens at dawn and closes at dusk, when the setting sun turns its mirrored surfaces a glowing pink. The flower stands in the Plaza Naciones Unidas (behind El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes over Avenida Figueroa Alcorta).

The harmonious, French neoclassical mansion that houses the National Museum of Decorative Art is as much a reason to visit as the period furnishings, porcelain, and silver within it. Ornate wooden paneling in the Regency ballroom, the imposing Louis XIV red-and-black-marble dining room, and a lofty Renaissance-style great hall are some of the highlights in the only home of its kind open to the public here. There are excellent English descriptions of each room, and they include gossipy details about the original inhabitants, the well-to-do Errázuriz-Alvear family. The museum also contains some Chinese art. Guided tours include the Zubov Collection of miniatures from Imperial Russia.