Location: Retiro
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What to do and see in Retiro, Capital Federal District: The Best Sights & Landmarks
The birthplace of the tango is, like the dance itself, captivating, seductive and bustling with excited energy. Atmospheric old neighborhoods are rife with romantic restaurants and thumping nightlife, and Buenos Aires' European heritage is evident in its architecture, boulevards and parks. Cafe Tortoni, the city's oldest bar, will transport you back to 1858, and the spectacular Teatro Colon impresses just as it did in 1908. Latin America's shopping capital offers the promise of premium retail therapy along its grand, wide boulevards.
Restaurants in Buenos Aires
1. Mansao Alzaga Unzue
2. Palacio Estrugamou
3. Palacio Paz
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 368 reviews
Reviewed By 311queenj - California, United States
This was the private residence of one of the most prominent families in Buenos Aires. It is a fantastic tour on which you are led through an impressive foyer and into opulent French-styled rooms with gold gilding, chandeliers, sculptures, dark imported Italian wood, tall stained glass windows, marble floors and staircases, etc, etc, etc. This was definitely my favorite tour, with the Museo de Arte Decorativo trailing behind by a hair. Palacio Paz is located across the street from the Plaza San Martin and is about an 8 minute walk from the Galerias Pacifico mall in the Florida shopping area. The Teatro Colon is about a 15 minute walk away. Though the tour was in Spanish, the guide did her best to speak slowly and gesture to help visitors understand. I'm not fluent in Spanish, but I caught about 2/3 of the presentation and helped explain to a few non-Spanish speakers on the tour. The enthusiasm and passion of the tour guide was one of the strengths of this tour. She really enjoys meeting new people and sharing this gem - a window to the style and opulence enjoyed by the aristocracy of 1909. The tour lasts about 1.5 hours. The palace can ONLY be visited on a guided tour and is closed the rest of the day. The outside gate is locked and doesn't open until around 10am. At this time, visitors may inquire about tour times by speaking to the guard in the palace doorway, but visitors are not allowed entry until about 15 minutes before the tour. The tour costs about 850 pesos ($15 or so) and in my opinion, is worth it. Just show up a little before 11am and wait to be allowed into the lobby and hall where you pay cash (Argentine pesos) at the cashier window. People start to gather outside around 10:45am, so it's a good idea to come a little early. The tour group is maxed out around 15 people, so don't snooze and lose. *The sign outside indicates two tours a day, but when we inquired, we were told there was only ONE TOUR at 11am (in Spanish). I don't know if that is because we visited on Friday, January 3rd, right after the New Year holiday - it was closed Dec 31st, Jan 1st, and Jan 2nd - or if they've permanently cut their tours back to only one tour a day. Supposedly, there is an English tour once a week at 3:30pm on Thursdays, but we didn't confirm that since Thursday wasn't an option for us. Hope that helps! Enjoy Buenos Aires! *Note: Finding information on opening hours or tour times was near impossible to do by internet. Google opening hours are completely inaccurate, the Argentine government website simply explains the building, and does not post hours or tour information. Therefore, it is not possible to book a tour in advance, which drove me bonkers. Be aware that the "tours" offered through various tour companies online are mostly walking tours that breeze by the outside, stop briefly to explain its significance, and then briskly whisk tourists away to the next stop. These tours do NOT go inside. There is one VERY pricey palace tour which may actually include a tour inside, but why pay a few hundred dollars when you can show up and pay $15? You just need to know when. I think that may be why there is so little information about tours and opening hours. It's mad annoying!
4. Basilica del Santisimo Sacramento
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 2,667 reviews
Reviewed By 277vincentm - New Orleans, United States
Early one evening, I noticed an interesting-looking church on a side street. I wandered over to see its facade, but a wedding was taking place, and the church was still open. The ceremony limited my ability to explore, but what a stunningly beautiful church: both overall, and in detail. (Note: I’m not Catholic, so if I say anything incorrect, my apologies in advance; I approach Basilica Santisimo Sacramento as you might approach a Sikh gurdwara or a Shinto jinja, strictly from a cultural and architectural perspective). Creation: Doña Mercedes Castellanos de Anchorena, having spent years in France, and inspired by her favourite Parisian church (I suspect Sainte-Chapelle), wanted to build something similar in Buenos Aires. She covered 100% of the cost of this church: a very wealthy señora indeed! The church, based on a Parisian design, was consecrated in 1916 (a great year to be as far from France as you could get), and was promptly declared a minor basilica by the Pope. This church merits that honour. “Minor” is not pejorative; four ancient Roman churches are the only major basilicas: period. It doesn’t matter if Brunelleschi designed your dome, Giotto built your bell-tower, and Ghiberti did the doors: if you’re not one of those four churches, the best you can ever get is minor. Facade: The basilica’s facade is tall, narrow, and hemmed in by surrounding buildings all around, so you’re forced to look up at it from close by, rather than across a plaza or other open space, where you could get a better perspective. The style is Beaux-Art, with a heavy emphasis on neoclassicism. The arrangement of decorative arches on the facade is clever: in some places, a single arch is visually “supported” by two pillars. In others, two arches side-by-side are “supported” by only three pillars, the central one doing double-duty. Or, try four arches supported by seven pillars: the two-arch/three-pillar design but with a large third arch supported by two pillars right beside the outer double-arch pillars. And then a fourth arch over the third one, supported by two more pillars bracketing the third arch’s. And finally, at ground level, we get a trio of real arches and pillars, one before each door into the church. The bottom three arches actually do the work of an arch, supporting weight; the others are purely decorative. And back at top centre, within one arch high above them all: a remarkable marble sculpture of two kneeling angels worshipping the host: a stern padre is holding up an elaborate golden monstrance with rays radiating out from the host in its centre. A monstrance is a decorative objet d’art which displays the sacred host: the wafer used for Holy Communion; a monstrance with rays projecting out of it, as you see on the church facade, is called a solar monstrance. Right! So walk into the church and stare straight ahead at the fabulously beautiful altar, and what do you see smack dab in the middle of it? A real golden solar monstrance, the spitting image of the one on the facade! All this is sublimely appropriate, since the church’s name is Santisimo Sacramento: “the most holy sacrament” aka Eucharist (the other six sacraments, from baptism to extreme unction, including the matrimony those Porteños were celebrating, are santo, but not santisimo; see Facade and Monstrance photos). Interior: what you immediately notice is how light it is, thanks to all those windows (see Interior photo). That photo also gives a hint of the transept, off to the left. The nave is bright and cheerful; the aisles on either side of the nave are set off by pillars; (see Nave photo). The light beige ceiling above the nave is a rib vault (see Rib Vault photo). The elegant “second-story” galleries immediately above the aisles (called the triforium) are vaulted as well, and separated from the nave by an arcade with bright arches resting on shining black pillars. Above the triforium, the outside walls close in on the nave, so the stained glass windows at this topmost level (called the clerestory) get plenty of sunlight, another factor in the airy, bright nature of the interior. The clerestory windows continue to provide natural light throughout the nave, wrap around the transept, and then light up the ambulatory and apse (See Triforium and Clerestory photo). The apse (the front of the church from the transept to the altar) is stunning: the stained glass is breathtaking; the altar is made of beautifully-sculpted marble of various colors, particularly white Carrera marble, the same stone that Michelangelo used for David, Moses, and the Medici Chapel. The apse also has beautiful frescos (see Apse photo). I had a telephoto lens, but I do wish I could have gotten closer. Unfortunately, the only circumstance where it’s proper to interrupt a wedding by running up to the altar, is if you’re the decent chap who really loves the bride, and you’ve just obtained proof that the groom who’s only after her fortune, is still legally married to a woman up in Bogota; I didn’t fit that description. However, even way back at the stern of the SS Santisimo Sacramento, I could confirm the quality of the materials used, thanks to the side chapels (see Side Chapel photo) and the ornate craftsmanship on the wooden pulpit and confessionals, which were somewhat within line-of-sight (see Pulpit and Confessionals photos). Something as simple as the holy water font was elaborately carved and constructed from four—count ‘em—four different types of marble (see Font photo). Saintology: A close inspection of the stained glass windows here may introduce you to quite a few saints you’ve never heard of before. Several were brand new to me, though they might be famed throughout both Spain and Latin America. For example, one window honorus St. Hermengild, an early 6th century Iberian Visigoth prince who rebelled against his father the king. He lost the war first, and his head second. Saints have associated sacred symbols (Patrick-shamrock, George-dragon, Augustine-tedious books) and Hermengild’s is a headsman’s axe: on the stained-glass window, there’s one axe in the main portrait of the saint, and another down below in a smaller vignette of his actual beheading (see Hermengild photo). Pipes: The church’s pipe organ is a monster: French-built, with 4983 “sound tubes.” Thanks to the wedding, I got to hear the organ: it’s impressive. If you’re Catholic, I’d recommend going to Mass on some special occasion when they’re sure to be playing the organ, such as Saint Hermengild Day. p.s. 1: One morbid reflection: you know, given what this church is made of, and when it was built, it struck me that the same Catholic Italian freighter crews that carried beautiful Carrera marble to Buenos Aires for this basilica, may have loaded up with deadly munitions to take back to Italy, for use against Catholic Austrians on the Isonzo Front. Argentina was wise to stay out of that cataclysm. p.s. 2: After writing the above, I scanned other TA reviews. Apparently this church is a popular tour stop (I can see why). Some reviewers state that this is a cathedral, where the current Pope Francis presided, and where José de San Martin’s tomb is located. It’s a minor basilica, not a cathedral. Pope Francis might very well have had some connection with Santisima Sacramento at some point in his career, but once he became archbishop of Buenos Aires, his official seat would have been the Metropolitan Cathedral. José de San Martin’s tomb is in the Cathedral, not here, though it’s squirrelled away even there, for theological reasons. (Francisco Pizarro’s is proudly displayed in Lima’s cathedral, but Pizarro was never a Freemason.)
5. Palacio San Martin
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 145 reviews
Reviewed By igazic - Zagreb, Croatia
You should definitively visit. Shows grandness on Argentina! Was only shortly posessed by original owner
6. Parroquia San Nicolas de Bari
7. Embajada de Brasil
8. Embajada de Francia
9. Monumento a San Martin
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 78 reviews
Reviewed By browncondo2102 - Kitchener, Canada
General Don Jose de San Martin liberated many South American countries from the Spanish on Aug. 17. 1850.When he died he was buried in Europe but later his remains were repatriated and returned here on the Steamship Villarino.
