What to do in Recoleta

Recoleta is a great neighborhood in the city of Buenos Aires and there are multiple activities to do, from impressive aristocratic palaces to the beautiful parks that surround the neighborhood. Let's take a walk through the highlights of Recoleta. Good news: all activities are free.

Alvear Avenue

Walking down the most attractive avenue in the city you will find large mansions that used to belong to different families of the aristocracy. Most of them today are embassies, hotels or public buildings. Almost entirely you can see French style , but there is some unusual style on the streets of the neighborhood.

Recoleta Cemetery

At the end of Alvear Avenue appears Plaza Alvear. If you have the chance to visit it on a weekend you will find a crafts fair. Next to the Iglesia del Pilar, is the first public cemetery in the city . Renowned for its works of art and impressive mausoleums.

El Ateneo Bookstore

If you go in the direction of Avenida Santa Fe, you will approach the most important bookstore in the country, El Ateneo Splendid . In the same building that used to be a theater, today you can enjoy a library of thousands of books, CDs and even a café to admire the frescoes and luxurious balconies.

law School

This building , dating from 1949, is the result of a preliminary design competition awarded to the architects Arturo Ochoa, Ismael Chiapore and Pedro Vivent. It is inspired by the purest Doric style, with no other decoration than that which lends it its own monumental structure. It occupies an area of 40,000 m2 that are distributed on the ground floor, main floor and two upper floors, and has a museum, an art gallery and a specialized library. Inside, in the assembly hall, there is a large oil painting by the artist Antonio González Moreno, which describes the inauguration ceremony of the University of Buenos Aires. The Faculty of Law was founded in 1821 by Dr. Antonio Sáenz.

Generic Floralis

This imposing 20 meter high sculpture that dominates the United Nations Square was donated to the City of Buenos Aires by its author, the Argentine architect Eduardo Catalano. It is made of stainless steel and aluminum and weighs 18 tons. It is the first moving sculpture controlled by a hydraulic system and photoelectric cells.

National Library

For lovers of modern architecture, or for passionate readers, there is the National Library. This building, inaugurated in 1992, is an example of the Brutalist style, highlighted among other things for showing off raw concrete in sight. Next to it there is a bar called Greenhouse to enjoy the building having a Gin Tonic.