In the early 18th century monks of the Order of the Recoletos arrived in this area. The order was disbanded in 1822. The garden of the convent was converted into the first public cemetery in Buenos Aires. The cemetery is built around the former convent and the Our Lady of Pilar church (Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Pilar), built in 1732.

Recoleta Cemetery has a surface of 5.5 hectares and contains almost 4.700 vaults. The entrance to the cemetery is through neo-classical gates with tall Doric columns. The cemetery has many elaborate marble mausoleums, decorated with statues, in a wide variety of architectural styles. Materials used between 1880 and 1930 in the construction of tombs were imported from Paris and Milan. The entire cemetery is laid out in sections like city blocks, with wide tree-lined main walkways branching into sidewalks filled with mausoleums.

Many notable people (presidents of Argentina, Nobel Prize winners, the founder of the Argentine Navy and a granddaughter of Napoleon), are buried on the Recoleta Cemetery. Perhaps the most well known of all is Eva Perón.

Main picture: Recoleta Cemetery, seen from the top of Hotel Etoile.
PiP1: one of the side ‘streets’
PiP2: plaque on the mausoleum of the Eva Peron mausoleum