Free tour Retiro and Recoleta: Aristocratic Buenos Aires

Explore two of Buenos Aires’ most elegant and architecturally impressive neighborhoods and discover how the country’s most powerful families lived between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

As we walk through Retiro and Recoleta, we’ll explore Buenos Aires’ Belle Époque, a period shaped by economic growth, European influence and the construction of grand palaces, private residences and monumental buildings that aimed to turn the city into a major international capital.

Along the way, we’ll talk about the families who held enormous wealth and influence, how their fortunes were built, their relationship with politics, and how their vision of the country left a lasting mark on the architecture and urban development of Buenos Aires.

We’ll visit places such as Plaza San Martín, Calle Arroyo, the Isaac Fernández Blanco Museum of Hispanic American Art, Avenida Alvear and other emblematic corners of Retiro and Recoleta.

The tour combines architecture, social and political history, immigration, everyday life and the contradictions of a city that once dreamed of becoming the “Paris of South America.”

The tour ends at Plaza Francia, directly in front of Recoleta Cemetery. Entrance to the cemetery is not included in the tour.