Letters from Argentina: La Recoleta Cemetery, A Walk Through Argentina’s Rich History…

My dear travelers and lovers of unusual journeys, welcome to the new series of travelogues on the Mr.M blog. May, as well as the following months, will be dedicated to one unusual continent – South America, I will show you the countries that I had the opportunity to visit and I am sure that you will enjoy it and want to spend your vacation in one of the destinations. At the very beginning of today’s travelogue, where I will try to convey to you the beauty of Argentine history with a walk through the most beautiful cemetery in the world – La Recoleta, I would like to thank the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), local ministries of tourism, national tourism organizations, as well as other partners who selflessly supported my adventure in South America. With their help, travelogues from several countries were created, as well as numerous fashion stories that you will have the opportunity to read during this series of posts, and I sincerely hope that you will enjoy the new adventure.

Posts from Argentina were created with the selfless help of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), The Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Sports of Argentina, Convention Bureau of the City of Buenos Aires and Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel.

In order to ever understand the present, we must understand the past. A cemetery does not necessarily have to be a place where the feeling of sadness prevails, but it can be a place where you can learn something about the history of a people, the culture of a country and enjoy the architecture.

La Recoleta Cemetery (Spanish: Cementerio de la Recoleta) is a cemetery located in the prestigious neighborhood of Recoleta in Buenos Aires. It contains the graves of notable eminent people, including Eva Perón, presidents of Argentina, Nobel laureates, the founder of the Argentine Navy, and military commanders such as Julio Argentino Roca. In 2011, the BBC named it one of the world’s best cemeteries, and in 2013, CNN included it among the 10 most beautiful cemeteries in the world.

The cemetery covers an area of ​​5.5 hectares and contains 4,691 tombs, all of which are built above ground, of which 94 have been declared national historical monuments by the Argentine government and are protected by the state. The entrance to the cemetery is through neoclassical gates with tall Doric columns. The cemetery contains many elaborate marble mausoleums, decorated with statues, in a wide range of architectural styles such as Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Baroque and Neo-Gothic, and most of the materials used between 1880 and 1930 in the construction of the tombs were imported from Paris and Milan.

At the beginning of the 18th century, friars from the order of Franciscan recollects arrived barefoot in the area where the Recoleta cemetery is currently located, then on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. In 1732, they built a monastery and a church at that place, which they placed under the patronage of the Virgin Pilar. Currently, the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar is a national historical monument. The locals called the Recollects church simply La Recoleta, a name that spread throughout the area.

When the order was dissolved in 1822, on November 17 of that year, the garden of the monastery was turned into the first public cemetery in the city of Buenos Aires. The people responsible for its creation were the then governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Martín Rodríguez (his remains rest in the cemetery) and his government minister Bernardino Rivadavia. Its first two tenants were the freed black boy Juan Benito and the young María Dolores Maciel.

In 1863, La Recoleta cemetery lost its status as a cemetery due to a conflict with the Freemasons, since the Mason Blas Aguero died that year, who refused to receive the holy sacraments, so the church denied him burial, but at the request of his nephew, President Bartholomew Mitre gave him permission, after which the archbishop’s status of the cemetery was not extinguished.

In the 1870s, as a result of the yellow fever epidemic that ravaged the city, many upper-class portens left the neighborhoods of San Telmo and Montserrat and moved to the northern part of the city in Recolet. When it became an upper-class neighborhood, the cemetery became the final resting place of the most prestigious and powerful families of Buenos Aires. At the same time, the Chacarita cemetery or Western Cemetery, unlike the North Cemetery, less commonly called Recoleta, was inaugurated.

At the very entrance to the cemetery, three dates are engraved on the floor: 1822, when the La Recoleta cemetery was created, 1881, when the first remodeling of the cemetery was carried out, and 2003, the year of the second remodeling of the cemetery. The Recoleta Cemetery is an emblematic burial monument in Buenos Aires, recognized for its artistic and historical value. Its main entrance has a portico formed by four Greek Doric columns, completed during renovations in 1881 under the supervision of Mayor Torquato de Alvear. The external and internal facades are decorated with Latin inscriptions: “Requiescant in pace” (Rest in peace) on the outside, and “Expectamus Dominum” (We await the Lord) on the inside, symbolizing the dialogue between the living and the dead.

On the front, above the pillars, are written the first symbols of life and death, presented in eleven allegories: the spindle and the scissors: the thread of life that can be cut at any moment. Cross and letter P: peace of Christ in cemeteries. Crown: a vow of lasting memory. Sphere and Wings: a process of life and death that is constantly spinning like a sphere. Cross and crown: death and memory. Bee: diligence. The snake bites its tail: the beginning and the end. Shroud over the urn: abandonment and death. Torches with flames pointing downwards: death. Owl: guardian, and according to some beliefs, heralds death. Water clock or hourglass: passage of time or passage of life.

The cemetery has 4,780 graves spread over 54,843 square meters, 80 of which have been declared national historical monuments. The cemetery contains several marble mausoleums, decorated with statues, in a wide range of architectural styles. La Recoleta cemetery is organized in the form of blocks, conceived as a small town, with wide rows of trees leading to side alleys lined with mausoleums and arches. There is a large central roundabout from which the main avenues depart, with a sculpture of Christ by the sculptor Pedro Zonza Briano, in 1914.

Mausoleums, built in a variety of architectural styles, are usually marked with a family name on the facade, and often contain bronze plaques with the names of the buried individuals. Among the famous people buried in this cemetery are figures from Argentine politics, culture and society.

The writer Jorge Luis Borges expressed in one of his poems his desire to be buried in this place, although he was finally buried in Geneva. The Recoleta Cemetery can be considered a “city within a city”, as its architectural configuration, layout and sculptures make it one of the most famous places in Buenos Aires. This cemetery is a unique space that, with its urban layout, reflects an organization similar to that of a city.

Its layout is characterized by orthogonal streets that divide the land into regular plots, creating avenues, alleys and diagonals. These features structure the space so that each part of the cemetery has its own identity, while the sculptures commissioned by the families who own the vaults visually enrich the environment, with different artistic representations of life and death.

In the center of the cemetery, a large central roundabout serves as a reference point, from which the main avenues diverge. In this area there is a sculpture of Christ made by the sculptor Pedro Zonca Briano in 1914, which forms a large cross, a symbol of the sanctity of the place.

From the very beginning, the cemetery area has had extensions, significant and reference elements, which thicken the experience of the place. The cemetery maintains a practical relationship of identification with the city itself: a spatial arrangement in grids, from which the blocks built on the Recoleta land arise, a geometric design with streets, avenues and diagonals. The walls contain, define and protect it as a sacred space.

The plan was requested from the Director of the Department of Architectural Engineers of the Province of Buenos Aires, Eng. Prospero Catelin. With the plan approved and already in execution, a government decree was issued on September 3, 1823, which determines the scale of prices according to the location of the plots and which is interesting for the purpose of this work, because it determines that “the most desirable graves are occupied by the bodies of those people whose virtues or relevant services to society have earned them power and a notable place forever in the society of citizens. duty to perpetuate the memory of such worthy citizens by disposing of their ashes.”

It is significant that the Government, following the tone of the explanation of the decree, reserves for itself “some graves to officially assign them to those people who stand out due to merits contracted in any branch of public service”, thereby reserving space for grave plots for the pantheon of meritorious citizens, to the right of the main entrance street to the cemetery.

La Recoleta Cemetery is the eternal home of numerous eminent personalities who in some way left their mark on Argentine history. Some of them are:

General Bartolome Mitre

The mausoleum of General Bartolomé Mitre is located opposite the old entrance gate at 1720 Junin Street. Sculpted in marble, his sculptures were made by Eduardo Rubino, born in Turin, and represent “Liberty”, “Duty” and “Justice”. Today, on its top, the hero’s name is framed between winged figures. Miter was a military man, journalist, poet and historian, who crowned his career as the president of the united nation in the period 1862-1868. year.

Eva Duarte de Peron

On one of the streets in section 16 is the Duarte family vault, in the Art Deco style, notable for its pilaster and pediment treatment framing the bronze doors, richly decorated with festoons, flowers and stylized foliage. The building is crowned with a burning brazier, a symbol of eternity. Eva Duarte de Perón, who did extensive social work for the poor during the first presidency of her husband, General Juan Domingo Perón, died in 1952 at the age of 33. After the 1955 coup, his remains were stolen and hidden by the Liberation Revolution until this restitution and final transfer in 1976.

Julio Argentino Roca

Its vault is built on the corner formed by one of the diagonals of this necropolis and one of its main streets, a location that allows it to be distinguished from different places. A soldier and statesman born in Tucumán in 1843 and killed in Buenos Aires in 1914, he fought in the campaign against Paraguay and conquered the desert. President of the Republic in two terms: 1880-1886 and 1898-1904. The vault has mannerist features, and its walls and the fence surrounding it are richly decorated with arabesques, angels and fallen torches. The domestic character of its main door, which is preceded by a small atrium, attracts attention; It has a rich decoration of the classical repertoire.

Juan Manuel de Rosas

The hero rests in the family crypt of Ortiz de Rozas next to his wife Encarnacion Escura, who died in 1838 and is also buried there. The vault, covered in granite, was built in 1845 after the death of Agustina López Osorio, Rosas’ mother, and remodeled in the first decade of the 20th century, when one of the entrance doors was closed to make room for the altar. Rosas died in exile in England in 1877, after the defeat at the Battle of Cazeros, and his remains were returned and interred in this mausoleum on September 30, 1989 during the government of Carlos Menem, after years of efforts led by sectors of historical revisionism.

Manuel Dorrego

The remains of Manuel Dorego rest in a vault located on the main street of the cemetery, near the Central Christ. His tomb is a truncated pyramid with an acropter at the corners and artistically wrought iron doors, which allow one to see inside the white marble urn where the hero lies. Dorego, the governor of Buenos Aires, was an ardent defender of federalism. Deposed by Juan Lavalle in 1828, he was executed by order of the latter near Navarre. His remains were transferred to Recoleta in December 1829 by order of Juan Manuel de Rosas.

Facundo Quiroga

The tomb of Juan Facundo Quiroga is surrounded by low iron railings that end in a spearhead. In its center, on a quadrangular pillar, stands the “Dolorosa” made of Carrara marble, the work of the Italian sculptor Antonio Tantardini (1829-1879), which is considered the first work of art in the cemetery. Quiroga, born in 1788 in Llanos de La Rioja, was governor of that province and fought against the Unitarians, defeating Lamadrid at ‘El Tala’ and José María Paz at ‘La Tablada’. His life ended tragically in 1835, when he was killed in Baranca Yaco. His remains were originally placed in the Cemetery of Canons, next to the cathedral in Cordoba, and the following year they were transferred to this tomb.

Rufina Cambaceres

In the corner of section 13 is the vault of Rufina Cambaseres next to her family, which bears the name of Antonio Cambaseres, Rufina’s uncle, in reference to Mr. Cambaseres, a landowner and man of great wealth who held the position of director of the provincial bank of Buenos Aires and the railroad. Rufina’s father, Eugenio, was a distinguished writer who left behind interesting works. Her daughter died on May 31, 1902. , her 19th birthday, probably buried under a cataleptic fit. Her mother decided to build a tomb for her daughter next to the family vault. The result was an important Art Nouveau monument with a stylization of curved lines and an abundance of stems, leaves and flowers. It is the work of the German Richard Eigner. Rufina is shown standing in front of a door, holding the handle as if to open it. This artistic performance, complete with the circumstances of her sudden death.

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento

The tomb of this hero is located in one of the inner streets of the 17th part of this necropolis. On the podium with a quadrangular base covered with mosaic stands an obelisk crowned with a bronze condor, at the bottom of which is the inscription “Civilization and Barbarism”. Sarmiento was an educator, writer and soldier. He was the governor of his province and the president of the nation in the period 1868-1874.

Federico Leloir

We can say that it is one of the most impressive vaults in this cemetery, which was designed by the French architect A. Guilbert. The Leloirs are originally from the French low Pyrenees, and arrived in these countries around 1820. Dr. Luis Federico Leloir rests here. Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1970. The monument consists of three characteristic parts. Large cubical base, faced with polished granite: middle part; composed of a bronze drum, which supports the dome, an element transformed into a skylight through which light reaches the refined chapel. This is presided over by Christ, the work of the Italian Leonardo Bistolfi (1859-1933). The entire structure is crowned by a small temple surrounded by Ionic columns, on which rests a large dome, inside which the Redeemer is represented in tiles of different colors.

Carlos Pellegrini

The mausoleum of Dr. Pellegrini is located on the central path, closing the street that starts at the Peristyle. This circumstance gives it a wonderful perspective, further emphasizing the inherent values ​​of the work. It was commissioned by the Jockey Club to house the remains of its founder and first president. It is the work of the French sculptor Marins Jean Antonin Mercie.

Doctor Salvador María del Carril

This vault is a monumental construction in which the most prominent part is the needle-shaped canopy crowned with the image of Cronus – the God of Time. Inside the pavilion is a statue of the jurist, and above the entrance to the crypt is a bust of Da Tiburcia Dominguez, his wife. The tomb was made by Camilo Romairon Del Carril (1798-1883) who was governor of his native province of San Juan: Minister of Government and Foreign Affairs during the governorship of Laval.

General Juan Lavalle

A bronze grenadier watches over the sleep of the brave soldier Chakabuka, Maipu, Riobamba, Pichincha and Ituzaing, among other military actions. It is a sober vault made of black granite, with refined doors that stand out. He was the governor of the province of Buenos Aires and as head of the unit he intervened in Navarre’s action.

The tomb of José Clemente Paz (1842-1912) is one of the monuments of the exceptional sculptural group of the Frenchman Gilles Félix Coutant (1848-1939), who performed works on behalf of the Paz family, in honor of their late son, José Jacob Paz, a year later in Eight Gainza Paz4. In 1912, the president of La Prensa, José Clemente Paz, was buried in this vault.

Felix Coutant was a famous French sculptor of his time. His works stand out for their attention to detail and pleat work. He created sculptures in bronze and marble with a neoclassical approach and arranged them to be seen from the front, contained in the rear supports, making them part of the architecture.

The tomb has a cubic volume covered with black granite, a bronze door that serves as a pedestal for two large angels, placed from right to left of the door, one on an anchor and the other with a crown at the feet. Another sculptural group of three figures renews the drama: a half-subdued woman, almost fainting, letting go of an extinguished lamp.

In ascending order, in the same line, we see an urn with a half-open lid called a sarcophagus, from which appears a female figure representing the human soul, moving towards an angel with outstretched wings and pointing with the index finger towards infinity, eternity. The entire work is made of white marble, with meticulous details and great dynamics. The Tomb of the Paz Family is a sculptural work that can be seen as a “monument, not a charm”, as it is valued for what it was originally intended for.

Grave of Olivera De Pigneto

This tomb is located in section 9 and was made by Louis Perlotti in 1946. It is important to note that both the panels and the relief are made of dolomite stone that could have come from the Olavaria quarry, Buenos Aires province, and the base is made of granite. It shows the image of a woman with raised hands, in which simplicity, purity and sobriety can be seen. Due to the southern orientation of the front part of the tomb and its delimitation by the adjacent wall, the tomb is closed, creating a very humid microclimate that favors the development of microorganisms, which makes it difficult to read the work. The development of plants was observed at the junction of the plate and the relief. Microcracks have been identified in most stones. Erosion was also evident in the form of aggressive agents such as rain and wind, leading to a lack of surface cohesion and loss of surface finish. Because of all these omissions, it was necessary to carry out the restoration of the tomb. It is important to note that the relief, although exposed, was integrated into the overall composition of the tomb after the restoration.

Mausoleum of Doctor Nicolas de Avellaneda

This mausoleum is located in section 20 and was created by Parisian sculptor Gilles Coutant in 1910. This monument is made entirely of Carrara marble by carving and assembling slabs. Its dimensions are 3m high, 2.50m wide and 2.3m deep. It consists of a tall column with an allegorical figure of a woman in the act of prayer on its shaft, a capital with a portrait of a hero and a plinth with ornamental decoration. This monument was previously restored in 1968, due to the fact that the work is exposed without any protection and suffers from general surface erosion. Only in the sectors protected from the rain by their orientation (northeast) and morphology, a record of the original polishing could be observed.

In the right profile, the sculpture has a thin black layer produced by biological agents that covers almost the entire surface and is embedded in the structure of the stone. Also on the face of the allegory, erosion was observed with the loss of the finish, as well as the sticking of black bark. Structurally, the movement of the column that closes the mausoleum was observed. The lack of a metal chain attached to the pillars as a closure of the monument was also noticed. The intervention enabled a quick interpretation of the monument considering its location at the end of one of the cemetery streets. Standing near the sculpture, one can clearly see the different treatments on the same material.

Mausoleum of Colonel Federik Brandasen

This mausoleum is located in section 9 and was built by Carlos Romairone in 1905. The load-bearing material of the monument is Carrara marble with veins, except for the bust, which is made of unearthed Carrara marble. The memorial plaques and ornaments placed at the opening of the monument were cast in bronze. The dimension is 5m high, with a base of 2m by 2m. A visual comparison between the historical documentation and the current state of the monument revealed some differences, such as the addition of steps to the front of the monument. Both the allegory and the portrait of the colonel represent a significant accumulation of surface society and a change in granulometry.

This is observed in areas exposed to rain incense and extends along runoff lines generated by the morphology. Added to this is the mechanical effect of sandblasting done in the previous changes. Marble presents significant cracks as well as a film of oxide from metal decorative elements. Cracks and cracks were also observed, some of them with the application of cement mortar products of previous interventions. The criteria for the intervention included the relocation of the memorial plaques, which were placed in front of the monument, which, due to the proximity of the entrance to the cemetery, enables a quick inspection.

Tomb of Maria Sánchez de Thompson and Mandeville

This tomb is located in Section 3 and was created by an anonymous artist in 1870 using the turning technique, with Carrara marble assembled in sections. Its dimensions are 2m high and 2m wide and 1.7m deep. The biggest concern about this work, when it came to its conservation, was its structural deterioration, the result of ground movement under the influence of nearby tree growth. Its square base and orientation create a significant difference in wear between the front with direct exposure to rain and wind compared to profiles that have less wear. Ornaments and plaques show pronounced erosion, the progress of which reveals veins of marble in relief. A high percentage of oxidation can be observed on the front side of the tomb, which is quickly visible. The constructive maintenance of the tomb is the result of technical availability related to its historical moment, which has been revalued over time.

From the beginning of the 19th century, the political circumstances that unfolded on both sides of the River Plate, from the English invasions onwards, reinforced a special commitment to military glory, and especially posthumous honors given to the heroes of the Reconquest and the entry into the era of independence to the military heroes of independence. This recognition was reflected in significant funerary celebrations, with commemorative rituals reminiscent of royal burials during the colonial period and ephemeral architectural and artistic objects of admirable material and artistic investment. These were supplemented by funerary monuments placed in the public cemetery beginning in the late 1820s.

In the next post, I will delight you with a review of the Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel, so that you can learn more about this fantastic hotel in Buenos Aires and consider staying here during your stay in the Argentine capital.

My dear adventurers, we have reached the end of this second special travelogue from Argentina where we enjoyed the beauty of Buenos Aires in the series of travelogues of Argentina where we had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of this unusual country in South America. Today’s travelogue would not be possible without the selfless help of United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), The Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Sports of Argentina, Convention Bureau of the City of Buenos Aires and Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel in collaboration with local partners who allowed me to feel the spirit and beauty of local culture and the beauty of everyday life in Buenos Aires. Of course, as always, I tried my best to convey to you my impressions of this unusual experience from Argentina.

A person is rich in soul if he has managed to explore the world and I am glad that I always manage to find partners of my projects who help me to discover new and unusual destinations in a completely different way.

I am honored to have the opportunity to collaborate with many companies and businessmen in the tourism sector and I would like to thank once again United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), The Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Sports of Argentina, Convention Bureau of the City of Buenos Aires and Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel for this incredible adventure and for allowing me to feel the beauty of this very unusual Argentinian culture in a different way and to feel the beauty of everyday life in Buenos Aires.

How did you like my story about La Recoleta cemetery and the presentation of Argentine history in this way? Have you had the chance to visit Buenos Aires and beautiful Argentina so far?

If you have any question, comment, suggestion or message for me you can write me below in the comments. Of course, as always, you can contact me via email or social networks, all addresses can be found on the CONTACT page. See you at the same place in a few days, with some new story!

With Love from Buenos Aires,

Mr.M

This post is sponsored by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), The Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Sports of Argentina, Convention Bureau of the City of Buenos Aires and Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel and other local partners. This post is my personal and honest review of the destination experience.