In the area of Palermo Woods,
we can find the elegant Rosedal Park and
the delightful Andalusian Courtyard with its
majólicas donated by the Sevilla City Council.
It constitutes one of the classic green spaces
where Porteños flock to on weekends to catch
some sun, go boating and bike riding, roller
skating or exercising.
At Del Libertador Avenue and
Dorrego Street is the Hipódromo Argentino,
a memento of the Belle Epoque architectural
style where horse races and social events take
place. Crossing the broad avenue, you arrive at
the Campo Argentino de Polo where the
Republic Open Championship is played every year
in November.
On the other side of the
railroad track is the imposing Centro
Cultural Islámico Rey Fahd which covers
three hectares. It was inaugurated in September
2000 and has a school, exhibition and conference
rooms, a library and a mosque with a capacity
for 1600 faithful people.
The neighborhood’s oldest
section with low houses, aging trees, narrow
streets and picturesque passages is located
between Santa Fe Avenue and Córdoba Avenue. It
is the favorite place for bohemians and
intellectuals tied to arts and literature, and
went through a process of renovation until
turning itself into a neuralgic point of the
Porteño nightlife.
At midday, every weekend, 40
plastic artists exhibit their works in Plaza
Cortázar. In the surrounding area of Serrano and
Jorge Luis Borges Streets you can also find
several bars and restaurants, which have been
opened for many years.
All this area is known as
Palermo Soho because it has been filled with
new stores of clothing and decoration designers.
There is another very famous
and crowded area known as Palermo Hollywood
that offer ethnic, Mediterranean and
international cuisine as well as tapa bars in
old, renovated houses with enchanting
courtyards, terraces and sidewalk tables.
LA BOCA
La Boca is located in the
south of the city and its history tied to
immigration and tango makes it one of the most
picturesque areas. Many Italians who came to
Argentina in search of a better life established
their corrugated iron houses near the Riachuelo.
The neighbourhood still has streets with cobble
stones, such as Caminito, now converted
into a footpath that recreates the tenements of
times of old with their striking colors and
windows hung with laundry. Artists and craftsmen
sell tango and neighborhood-related paintings
and souvenirs there.
Actors dressed as “gallants”
sing songs made famous by Gardel accompanied by
a guitar or bandoneón (kind of accordion), while
just a little further down a dancing couple
astounds the passersby with a milonga. From the
promenade that follows the Riachuelo you can see
the remains of abandoned ships and the Nicolás
Avellaneda Bridge which Benito Quinquela Martín
immortalized in his paintings. The studio of the
already deceased artist was converted into the
La Boca Museum of Fine Arts where the
paintings of Quinquela Martín and other painters
are exhibited.
La Boca is also the
birthplace of one of Argentina’s passion: the
Boca Juniors Football Club. In the area
surrounding the stadium, which is known as the
“Bombonera”, the team’s blue and yellow colors
are omnipresent, as are the murals with themes
related to football as well as to neighborhoods.
All these paintings are the works of “Grupo
Murosur” on Brandsen Street and Pérez Celis and
Macció on Iberlucea Street.
SAN
TELMO
Aristocratic families settled
down in this neighborhood, one of the most
typical of Buenos Aires, until the yellow fever
epidemic in 1871 broke out. As time passed and
new immigrants arrived during the end of the 19th
century and the beginning of the 20th,
the big houses became “conventillos” (buildings
packed with families of squatters) it was not
until 1970 that began to be remodeled. Some
century old buildings were declared historical
heritage of the city. In the last year, many new
theme hostels and hotels chosen by young
travelers and artists settled down in the area.
Many antique shops line up
along Defensa Street, some are open during the
week. On Sundays, you can enjoy the San Telmo
Market from 10 am, located in Dorrego Square
(Defensa, Carlos Calvo and Humberto I), where
you can discover antiques, works of art, and
objects made by street artists. The square is
surrounded by cafés with terraces from where it
is easy to observe couples dancing tango.
This church is located at
Humberto I Street, between Balcarce and Defensa,
fifty meters away from Plaza Dorrego. It
belonged to the Jesuits until they were forced
to leave. The adjoining building used to be a
prison back in the 19th century and
today it houses the odd Penitentiary Museum that
recreates with dummies the lives of prisoners
back in those days. Across the church a
beautiful neocolonial building stands out: The
Guillermo Rawson School.
Its construction was
completed in 1799. Manuel Belgrano’s mausoleum,
sculpted by the Italian Ettore Ximenes, has been
placed in the atrium. Bullet marks from the
first English invasion can still be seen on the
tower of the church. Both the temple and the
convent have been declared National Historical
Monuments.
Parquet Lezama, located in
the intersection of Defensa and Brasil, was the
scenario of the city’s foundation. The park
encompasses a small hill with trees and flowers
where Ernesto Sábato situated the beginning of
this famous novel “Sobre Héroes y Tumbas”. Not
far from there, another writer, Jorge Luis
Borges, imagined a small revolving sphere that
inspired the title of one of his books, “The
Aleph”.
The National Museum of
History is at Defensa 1600 and was the house of
the Lezamas. Today it features collections of
the Jesuitical missions.
BELGRANO
Also called “The Republic of
Belgrano” for its strong identity, this
distinguished residential neighborhood features
stores, restaurants, architectural highlights,
churches and parks. At the Barrancas de Belgrano
Square there used to be a limestone deposit
until landscape designer Carlos Thays
transformed it into a beautiful park with palm
trees, “ombúes and gomeros”, typical local
species at the turn of the century.
In Barrancas de Belgrano we
can also find milonga “La Glorieta”. It is a
popular place where many people go to dance
tango in the open air. People from different
ages and all levels of tango.
