San Telmo on a Sunday: Defensa street to Parque Lezama: a walk in Buenos Aires

Down Defensa street through the old residential barrio: the excavated tunnels of El Zanjón, the 1897 market, the Sunday antiques fair in Plaza Dorrego and the National History Museum at Parque Lezama.

Best time: Sunday from late morning, when the Feria de San Telmo fills Defensa and Plaza Dorrego

The route, stop by stop

1
El Zanjón de Granados
The city's most important archaeological recovery project; 45 min.
Under a restored 19th-century Italianate house on the old southern edge of Garay's city, digs since the 1980s uncovered brick tunnels that channelled a stream, cisterns and…
2
San Telmo Market
Covered market by Juan Antonio Buschiazzo, central hall from 1897; old greengrocers and butchers among antique dealers and food stalls; 30 min.
Opened in February 1897 to feed the new immigrants, Juan Antonio Buschiazzo's market keeps its iron beams, arches and glass roof under a central dome; antique stalls now sit…
3
Plaza Dorrego
Focal point of 19th-century San Telmo; the Feria de San Telmo antiques fair sets up here every Sunday; 30 min.
4
Museo Histórico Nacional
Defensa 1652: the national history museum, from pre-Hispanic objects to the May Revolution and the Crossing of the Andes; 60 min.
In Gregorio Lezama's old house, the national history museum shows the 1812 Macha flag that went with Belgrano's army, Mariquita Sánchez de Thompson's piano where the national…
5
Parque Lezama
The park at the south end of Defensa, on the edge of La Boca; 15 min.
Some historians place Pedro de Mendoza's first founding of the city here in 1536; in 1857 Gregorio Lezama made it one of the most lavish private gardens of the time, and his…

Walking directions

San Telmo on a Sunday: Defensa street to Parque Lezama

The route, stop by stop

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