Recoleta: the cemetery, El Pilar and the museums on Libertador: a walk in Buenos Aires

From Café La Biela past the Recoleta Cemetery and the 1732 Basílica del Pilar to the Palais de Glace, the national fine-arts museum and the moving steel flower of Floralis Genérica.

Best time: Morning; the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes is a good shelter at midday

The route, stop by stop

1
La Biela
The classic Recoleta café opposite the cemetery for a cortado and medialunas; 20 min.
The Recoleta café of the 1950s racing drivers (Fangio, Froilán González) who named it after a broken connecting rod; Bioy Casares lunched and wrote at table 20, where life-size…
2
Recoleta Cemetery
More than 90 of its vaults are National Historic Monuments; 60 min.
Laid out in 1822 by Próspero Catelin in the old garden of the Recoleto friars, it became the elite's necropolis; more than 90 vaults are national historic monuments, and Eva…
3
Basílica del Pilar
Church of the old Recoleto Franciscan convent, finished in 1732, the city's second-oldest church and a National Historic Monument since 1942; 20 min.
Inaugurated in 1732 by the Jesuit architects Bianchi and Prímoli, it keeps its original Baroque altarpieces; the high altar is worked in Alto Peru silver with Inca-style…
4
Palais de Glace
Posadas 1725: Belle Époque building opened in 1911 as an ice rink and social club; 15 min.
5
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
Libertador 1473: the largest collection of Argentine art, plus Goya, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Rodin and Manet; 90 min.
Opened at Christmas 1896, it holds the largest collection of Argentine art, from Cándido López and Prilidiano Pueyrredón to Berni and Xul Solar, plus El Greco, Goya, Rembrandt…
6
Floralis Genérica
Eduardo Catalano's 2002 steel and aluminium flower in Plaza Naciones Unidas, designed to open in the morning and close in the evening; 15 min.
Eduardo Catalano's 20 m, 18-tonne steel flower, inaugurated on 13 April 2002, was designed to open and close with the time of day using hydraulics and photoelectric cells; the…

Walking directions

Recoleta: the cemetery, El Pilar and the museums on Libertador

The route, stop by stop

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