Recoleta Cemetery and the Mausoleum of Eva Perón
Why is it significant?
Passing beneath the four colossal Doric columns of the entrance portico, designed in 1881 by Juan Antonio Buschiazzo, you enter the solemn streets of Recoleta Cemetery.
Key Facts
| Place | Recoleta Cemetery and the Mausoleum of Eva Perón |
|---|---|
| Address | Junín 1760, C1113 CABA, Argentina |
| Geo Coordinates | -34.58780, -58.39320 |
| Part of Walk | Recoleta Cemetery, Belle Époque Palaces, and Cultural Grandeur: The Paris of South America |
| Generated | Generated |
Passing beneath the four colossal Doric columns of the entrance portico, designed in 1881 by Juan Antonio Buschiazzo, you enter the solemn streets of Recoleta Cemetery. Founded in November 1822 on the confiscated orchard grounds of the Recolet monastery by government minister Bernardino Rivadavia, this fourteen-acre necropolis is widely considered one of the three most architecturally significant cemeteries on earth, alongside Père Lachaise in Paris and Staglieno in Genoa. Over four thousand marble mausoleums line its paved avenues, built in a dizzying array of architectural styles ranging from neo-Gothic chapels and Art Nouveau vaults to Austrian Secessionist crypts.
Walk down the central avenue and turn into the narrow cobblestone alleyway on aisle seven: there, adorned with fresh daily flowers, is the family vault of Duarte.
This modest black granite crypt holds the remains of María Eva Duarte de Perón, universally revered as Evita. Following her tragic death from cervical cancer in July 1952 at the age of thirty-three, Evita's embalmed body underwent an astonishing, surreal sixteen-year posthumous odyssey. Following the 1955 military coup that overthrew Juan Domingo Perón, paranoid military officers secretly stole her casket, transported it to Europe, and buried it under a false name in a municipal cemetery in Milan. In 1971, her body was exhumed and returned to Perón in Madrid, before being repatriated to Argentina in 1974. Today, her casket lies five meters below ground beneath two reinforced steel blast trapdoors, protected against any future disturbance. Visitors from across the world leave white roses and handwritten prayers behind the bronze door.
Walking through this silent city of marble angels, bronze allegories, and carved family crests feels like strolling through an open-air encyclopedia of Argentine political and literary history. Presidents, poets, scientists, and revolutionaries rest here side by side.
Exit the main gates and walk north along Calle Junín to reach the Recoleta Cultural Center.