Recoleta Cemetery Audio Guide for Buenos Aires

Welcome to Recoleta Cemetery, one of the most extraordinary and beautiful necropolises in the world. As you stand before the towering Neoclassical gates designed by the Italian architect Juan Antonio Buschiazzo, you are about to step into a five point five hectare maze of history and art. Before this land became a grand resting place for the elite, it served as a simple garden and orchard for the Franciscan monks known as the Recollects, who founded the neighboring Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in seventeen thirty-two. After the order was disbanded, the site was officially opened on November seventeen, eighteen twenty-two, as the first public cemetery in Buenos Aires. Initially, it was a modest space on the city's outskirts, but today it is an open-air museum in the heart of the capital's most exclusive neighborhood. As you enter, take a moment to look at the Doric columns of the main gate, where inscribed dates remind us of the cemetery's long three-stage evolution—from a religious garden to a public resting place and finally to a national monument. You are now entering what many call the City of the Dead, where the streets are organized like an urban grid, complete with avenues, sidewalks, and even small plazas.