Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires (must see)

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, Carlos Guido y Spano (poet), Carlos Saavedra Lamas (the first Latin American Nobel Peace Prize Winner) and Victoria Ocampo (writer). The entrance ticket price is $20 (30ARS) for foreign visitors. Free guided tours of the cemetery are conducted in English on Tuesdays and Thursdays, at 11.00 am. Visitors can purchase maps and take a self-guided tour around the graves and mausoleums of eminent Argentines.