recoleta cemetery in buenos aires, argentina

The neighborhood Recoleta is Buenos Aires at its most elegant. French Architecture, luxury hotels and designer stores, this neighborhood is home to the wealthiest not just in life, but also in death.

El cementerio de la Ricoleta is a cemetery unlike any I’ve ever seen.

Hundreds of graves and coffins are housed in rows and rows of extravagant mausoleums adorned with statues, stained glass windows and small private chapels. The narrow paths and the high walls these sarcophagi create make this unique cemetery comparable to a real city - a city with some of the highest real estate around. According to Lonely Planet there’s a saying that goes: “It’s cheaper to live extravagantly all your life than to be buried in Recoleta”.

Getting lost in the many passages, hunting down Eva Perón’s grave (it’s compulsory, isn’t it?) and contemplating the lives and deaths of the hundreds of buried politicians, presidents, military heroes as well as your ordinary run in the mill rich and famous, can keep one busy for hours.

Recoleta Cemetery

open 6am-7pm

admission is free (if you’re alive)

Calle Junín 1760