Cemetery tourism has become quite a thing in recent years, and during my trip to Argentina last year, I made sure I visited the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. The Père-Lachaise in Paris is the most famous tourist cemetery, but I haven't been before. Next up is probably Highgate cemetery in London and I posted about it here and here. Then there is the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. I was keen not to miss this opportunity when I was in town.
Getting to Recoleta
Recoleta is easily accessible by public transport from the city center, it only takes about 20 minutes by bus or tram, and there are many that get you here. After getting off my bus, I walked past the Law Faculty of the University of Buenos Aires. The Floralis Generica is located here. It's a steel flower sculpture where the petals open and close according to the sunlight. You can see it on the left hand side of the building (above the red bus) and it is one of the city's tourist landmarks. I had planned to come back to see it after Recoleta but never made it in the end. Talking of the law faculty here, during my Antarctica cruise a few days later, one of the expedition guide on board is a professor of law here. He has written a few books about the Antarctica and I got his latest book when I was on board. He even signed it for me. I'll do a book review of that when I finish reading it.
Anyway, I digress, let's get back to Recoleta. You'll know you've arrived when you see a lot of people outside an entrance that looks quite grand.
The entrance fee to Recoleta is ARS21190, which is around USD14 at the time of my visit. This is double the entrance fee I paid a few years ago to Highgate Cemetery in London. I think this is not considered cheap in Argentina, but then, I guess Recoleta has become a tourist attraction as much as a place to mourn and respect the dead. Luckily for the locals, they only pay less than ARS5000.
First impressions
My first impression upon entering the cemetery, is that it didn't feel too morbid and dark. The tombs were all built up as mauseloem, with elaborate decorations. Stone carved statues, crucifixes, angels, wreaths, decorative gates and other ornamental objects could be seen everywhere. They are actually a lot more elaborate and exquisite than many houses of the living.
It's almost like you had to keep up with the Jones, if not outdo your neighbour. If you have it, flaunt it. Or maybe it's a mark of respect for the dead. For example, I think this tomb may belong to a famous boxer called Luis Angel Firpo?
I'm not sure if buried is the right word here if they're not buried six foot under. You can peep through some of the doors and gates, and see the coffin inside. And sometimes there were multiple coffins inside. If you zoom in the photo below, you can see the coffin inside the white tomb on the right.
In a few cases, hubby said the coffin had opened up. I'm sure the dead hadn't pushed and climbed out. I think it was more to do with age, that time had taken its toll on the coffin and somehow the coffin lid had become loose. I was too scared to take a more detailed look or take photos, and kept my distance, peeping only from afar only. I'm not sure what happens to the corpse when this happens because even with a sealed casket I would imagine the weather might affect the body. The temperature was in the high 20s during my stay and we're not even in summer yet.
A birds eye view of Recoleta
Recoleta is located in the city surrounded by buildings, many are on the other side of the road outside of the cemetery perimeter. I wonder how people feel living nearby? Even if the locals are used to it, imagine being a tourist checking into this hostel late at night, then looking out of the room window to see all these tombs outside!! Or perhaps they don't mind, and are grateful they can get free views of the cemetery instead of forking out the 22k pesos.
Recoleta most famous resident
Recoleta's most famous residents, especially globally, is undoubtedly Maria Eva Duarte de Perón, or perhaps better known as Evita. She died aged 33 in 1952. A few years after her death, the government was overthrown by a military coup, ending Peronism. Evita's body was moved to Italy and buried under a false name for two decades. Her remains were finally moved back to Argentina and buried in Recoleta in 1976.
At the ticket office, we were given a map of the cemetery and indication on where the important tombs are. I totally forgot about this and must have stuffed it in my bag along with the entrance ticket. If I had remembered, I probably wouldn't have walked towards the right side, to the back, and zig zagged down the center looking for Evita's tomb. Her tomb is the little red dot on the bottom left of the map. Basically I was no where near it. Talking of entrance tickets, I just realised I was charged ARS30000 instead of the ARS21190 as stated on the sign by the entrance. That's a massive inflation!!!
Anyway, after walking nearly the entire Recoleta, suddenly I saw a sign in front of me with Evita's name and pointing into a side alley. This was the only sign I saw, so you can imagine how significant she is here.
In fact, as I was walking around, I was looking out for the Peron name on the tombs. That would have been pointless because you won't find it. You need to look for Familia Duarte, Evita's maiden family name.
To be honest, Evita's tomb doesn't look too dissimilar to her neighbours. Had it not been for a constant crowd outside, one could easily miss it. One thing that did stand out, were the tickets people slid in the front gate. They looked like some sort of election tickets and had people's name on it. I'm not sure the reason behind all this, maybe some sort of act to support freedom and democracy? If there are any local Argentines who can tell me that would be great.
Afterthought
Although I was only in town for a few days, I'm glad I visited the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. I've heard other cemeteries are also worth visiting, but I think as a first time visitor, you're always going to do all the famous places first.
Now I've visited the Recoleta Cemetery and Highgate Cemetery, I guess the next one will be the Père-Lachaise in Paris, where tombstone tourism started.
