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Recoleta Neighborhood Walking Tour, Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires
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Recoleta Neighborhood Walking Tour, Buenos Aires
Guide Location: Argentina » Buenos Aires
Guide Type: Self-guided city tour
# of Attractions: 10
Tour Duration: 3 hour(s)
Transportation Mode: by foot
Travel Distance: 5.1 km
Image Courtesy of Wikimedia and Claudio Elias
Author: irenes
Recoleta is one of most beautiful neighborhoods of Buenos Aires - it's the city's heart of art and elegance, grace and modernism, culture and leisure. Here you will find lots of things to do like: visiting museums, galleries and cultural centers; relaxing in one of the beautiful parks and plazas; or sampling the delicious local food. And if you travel to Recoleta with kids you will be happy to know that they will be perfectly safe and have a lot of things to see.
Tour Stops and Attractions
National Decorative Art Museum
1) National Decorative Art Museum
The National Decorative Art Museum was designed by French architect René Sergent in 1917 and has been a museum since 1937. The Palermo area building, neoclassical in design, is palatial in its appearance - having been decorated by a whole team of experts. It houses a remarkable collection of Andalusian tapestries, porcelains, silverworks, ancient furniture and more.
Image Courtesy of Flickr and jglsongs
Floralis Genérica
2) Floralis Genérica
The environmental kinetic sculpture Floralis Generalis was a gift to the city of Buenos Aires by architect, Eduardo Catalano. It opens every day at 8 a.m. to symbolize hope.
Eduardo Catalano was born in Buenos Aires and commissioned the Lockheed Airplane factory to fabricate the large flower based on his design. It was his gift to the city of his birth. No particular flower is depicted and it is a generic floral design that symbolizes all flowers. It is 23 meters high and stands at the center of a park above a reflecting pool. The paths around the sculpture are designed to give different perspectives of the structure. It has six petals that are 13 meters long and 7 meters wide.
An electrical mechanism automatically opens and closes the Floralis Generica. It opens in the morning and closes in the evening. A red light glows from inside the closed flower. It opens again in the morning depicting renewed hope. The opening process takes 20 minutes. The petals are also closed when strong winds blow as a protective measure. On May 25th, September 21st, Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, the petals remain open all night and are illuminated by red flood lights. Green lights illuminate the paths around the sculpture giving it a spectacular effect on these special nights.
Image Courtesy of Flickr and timsnell
Palais de Glace
3) Palais de Glace
The Palais de Glace is a National Historic Monument in Buenos Aires where art exhibitions are held. When it was built, the intention was to use it as a skating rink.
J.L.Ruiz Basadre designed the Palais de Glace and construction was completed in 1911. The style of the building was French style Belle Epoque. It had a large ice skating rink and also housed a social club at the time. The popular of ice skating declined in the twenties and that of the Tango increased. The rink was converted into a dance floor and many well known tango dancers performed at the venue. In the 30s, the building housed the National Office of Fine Arts and later the offices of the television station, Canal Siete. Since 1960, the Palais de Glace has become a popular exhibition space that has hosted an array of art exhibitions and musical performances.
The initial design consisted of a circular ice rink that was located in the center of the structure. Theater style boxes and rooms for social gatherings surrounded the rink. The refrigeration plant was in the basement. The first floor had a balcony, an organ and a café. In 1931, the interiors were remodeled to make way for exhibition space by architect Alejandro Bustillo and three large murals covered the interior walls. The building has a single large skylight on a domed roof to allow natural light directly on the former ice rink. Free guided tours take visitors around the Palais de Glace today.
Image Courtesy of Wikimedia and Claudio Elias
Iglesia del Pilar
4) Iglesia del Pilar
The Iglesia del Pilar is the second-oldest and most visited church in Buenos Aires. Dating back to the 18th Century, it is a typical building of the colonial period. Pilar Church is very simple and small - it is painted all in white and is designed in rounded lines. Inside the basilica you'll find several chapels with beautiful carvings. Dedicated to the Lady of Pilar, the church was designed and constructed by architect Andres Blanqui and inaugurated in 1732.
Image Courtesy of Wikimedia and Sking
Centro Cultural Recoleta
5) Centro Cultural Recoleta
The Centro Cultural Recoleta is a cultural and exhibition center located near the Recoleta Cemetry that has become one of the city's most important cultural and historical resources. It's home to paintings, sculptures, concerts, and artistic performances as well as workshops of different kinds. The building's structure was designed by Juan Krauss and Juan Wolf, while the facade and the interior décor were the work of Andrés Blanqui.
Image Courtesy of Flickr and edithbruck
La Recoleta Cemetery
6) La Recoleta Cemetery
Set in five and a half acres of land, the Recoleta Cemetery is referred to as the City of the Dead. Many of the gravestones and vaults are works of art and 94 have been declared as National Historic Monuments.
In the 18th century, the monks of the order of Recoletos built the church of Our Lady of Pilar. In 1822 the garden of the church was converted into a public cemetery by architect and civil engineer, Prospero Catelin. The entrance is through neoclassical styled gates with Doric columns. It hosts over 4600 graves and some of them are elaborate marble mausoleums. The layout is like a city with blocks, stone streets and small plazas. In 1881, the streets and the chapel were renovated and extensive maintenance of the sculptures and statues were carried out.
The Recoleta Cemetery is the final resting place of most Argentine Presidents and eminent personalities like Eva Peron, poet, Carlos Guido y Spano, the first Latin American Nobel peace Prize Winner, Carlos Saavedra Lamas and writer, Victoria Ocampo. Entrance to the cemetery is free and guided tours are conducted in English on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Visitors can purchase maps and take a self guided tour around the graves and mausoleums of eminent Argentines.
Image Courtesy of Wikimedia and Claudio Elias
Village Recoleta
7) Village Recoleta
The Recoleta Village is a popular theater and shopping complex in Buneos Aires. It is located near the embassies, the Barrio Norte, a wealthy neighborhood with upscale shops and restaurants.
The Recoleta Village is located opposite the walls of the Recoleta Cemetery. The theaters screen Hollywood blockbusters and films from Brazil, France and Spain. It has a quaint front plaza, a fountain and plenty of benches for tired shoppers to rest their feet. The ground floor houses restaurants with plenty of outdoor seating where customers can enjoy a snack or meal while watching the world go by.
The lobby of the building has a magnificent staircase that leads to the theaters. The lobby has a Cupside book store which is a branch of a popular book store chain in Buenos Aires. There are also pizzerias, cafes and bar type restaurants with indoor seating across the Cupside store. Movie tickets are sold upstairs and there are music shops and fast food restaurants include McDonalds on the upper floor. The theater sections offers a variety of viewing opportunities with 16 screens showing diverse movies in the upper three floors of the building. Popcorn, candy and other snacks enjoyed by movie goers are available on both floors. Village Recoleta is a popular Buenos Aires destination for movie goers and discriminating shoppers.
Image Courtesy of Flickr and flavouz
The Isaac Fernández Museum of Spanish American Art
8) The Isaac Fernández Museum of Spanish American Art
The collection of Ibero American art displayed in the Isaac Fernandez Blanco Museum is regarded as the most valuable in South America and the World. It first had the collection of Isaac Fernandez Blanco and was later enriched by donations by wealthy Argentines and collections of Ibero American art.
The Issaac Fernandez Blanco Museum of Spanish American Art is housed in a neo classical style mansion surrounded by a garden inspired by the parks in Spain. It was the home of the renowned French Argentine architect, Martin Noel who designed and constructed the building between 1914 and 1922. Isaac Fernandez Blanco was an engineer and collector of Ibero American Art. He was an expert violinist and started collecting stringed instruments at first and later was inspired to collect and preserve Ibero American artwork. The collections were first displayed in his house which he sold in 1922 to the City of Buenos Aires. Noel sold his house to the city in 1936 and the Ibero American Museum shifted to its present venue in 1947.
Notable works displayed at the museum are Peruvian silverware and handicrafts, Brazilian furniture, works from the Cuzco School of art that flourished in the colonial period, Jesuit statuary and Quito icons, hand fans and tortoise shell combs worn by ladies during the colonial era. There are also reproductions of rooms from houses in colonial Argentina.
Image Courtesy of Flickr and axiepics
Septima Winery
9) Septima Winery
Bodega Septima is one of the most modern wineries in Buenos Aires, or even the whole country. It's located in the traditional wine region of Mendoza, within the federal boundaries of the city of Buenos Aires in the shadow of the Andes. The winery has 100 hectares of select vineyards located 1100 meters above sea level, with a perfect continental climate. Septima's best products are their Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay Semillon, Tempranillo and Syrah varieties.
Image Courtesy of Flickr and gutter
Don Cristobal Winery
10) Don Cristobal Winery
Bodega Don Cristobal is one of the most famous wineries in Argentina. It is fully equipped with modern technology - the whole winemaking process is standardized and automated, producing wines of perfect quality. Don Cristobal Winery's bottles are actively exported to France, Italy, Russia, Poland, Japan and elsewhere. The winery sells 19 varieties of top quality wine, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec Rosé, Torrontés, Verdelho, Chardonnay and more.
Image Courtesy of Flickr and delphaber
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