El Zanjon de Granados - a 200 Year Old Mansion/Museum in Buenos Aires

 

This restored mansion also served as a tenement for dozens of families a century ago

Monday, October 30 - San Telmo, Buenos Aires

 El Zanjon de Granados is a 200 year old mansion that has been transformed into a museum. It is situated over a series of underground tunnels that offer historical value, dating back to Buenos Aires’ earliest settlements.

El Zanjón translates to “the hole.” Within the underground tunnel system, you can see water cisterns, a slave cell, and artifacts, like English china and African pipes, on display. Buenos Aires’s early settlers established a series of underground tunnels, which connected the various residences, but they were forgotten when the city above continued to expand. 

In 1830, a 23-room mansion was constructed and occupied, first by a wealthy family and later as tenement apartments for families.  The complex was eventually abandoned by the 1970s and used as a dumping ground by locals.  The El Zanjón de Granados property was purchased in the 1980’s to be renovated as a restaurant.  But the owner decided to preserve its historical value and restore the underground network.  The tunnels were originally used to divert water runoff into the river, before the city was tiled and piped.  Once that happened, the tunnels were abandoned and filled in. It has taken 20 years to restore the underground network and the mansion before it was opened as a museum.

The exterior of El Zanjon

Interior multilevel courtyard with restored original brickwork

Rounded arches are a theme of the construction

The plan of the mansion

An underground cistern to collect water

Our guide stands in front of the largest cistern, where a number of artifacts were discovered

Unique, historical underground network of tunnels used to divert water to the Rio de Plata

Recoleta Cemetery: Eva Peron's Burial Site & Amazing Angel Statues

Entrance to Recoleta Cemetary

Monday, October 30 - Recoleta, Buenos Aires

We made a stop in the Recoleta area to visit the Recoleta Cemetery.  Michael and I had stayed in this area for 5 days about a decade ago when he attended a conference for the NIAAA.  I had already spent 2 days photographing the cemetery on that trip, but it was nice to see it again.  Recoleta Cemetery is where the elite of Buenos Aires and Argentina are buried, including the country’s former presidents, Eva Peron and even one of Napoleon’s granddaughters. The cemetery was established in 1822 and contains more than 4,500 above ground vaults, of which 94 have been declared national monuments.  Families lease their area for the vaults with a 99 year contract.  

Our group headed to see the vault of Eva Peron - who’s family name is Duarte.  She is famous in the US for the play and movie “Evita”.  In Argentina, she was and still is a somewhat controversial figure. She was married to President Peron, who was elected to the presidency three separate times.  Interestingly, after she died in 1952, her body was lost for decades.  It was recovered in Milan, Italy in 1972 and brought back to Buenos Aires for internment in her family’s vault in Recoleta.

The family vaults are arranged along "streets" and neighborhoods

The statues are especially evocative

The Duerte family vault (Eva Peron's family) always has flowers

Evita Peron is buried 8 feet under the bottom of the vault, so that her body isn't stolen again

These two statues reminded me of Harry Potter dementors

Poinsettia tree with its beautiful scarlet leaves

Forty-eight Neighborhoods in Buenos Aires - We Toured a Bunch of Them!

 

The Floralis Generica stainless steel mechanical statue

Monday, October 30 - Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires has 48 different neighborhoods.  This afternoon, we saw Puerto Madero, Retiro, Recoleta, Centro, Monserrat and San Telmo. We drove on the main avenue through the city - 9 de Julio.  It is the widest avenue of the city and is named after their national independence day.  We saw a statue of their national liberator, Jose de San Martin and drove by an institute dedicated to his memory in the Palmero Chico area.  San Martin is a national hero of Argentina who helped lead the revolutions against Spanish rule in Argentine (1812), Chile (1818) and Peru (1821).

Our tour guide was Claudia, and she described the various neighborhoods as we traveled through the city.  She said the Buenos Aires is a city of 3 million people, mostly of European descent (97%) - and the majority are of Italian origin.  The city was founded in 1580, and became the capitol of Buenos Aires in about 1880.  She talked about the Puerto Mercado area, which I had described on a previous post yesterday.  She mentioned the red brick warehouse buildings, lining the canals, were used when the area was an active port from the 1880’s to the 1920’s.  The warehouses were all built in the “British style” of red brick and iron.  Of course, now they are have been renovated and include high priced apartments and shops.  All of the land from the canals east is newly created from landfill.

These cranes in Puerto Madero, are architectural remnants from the 1920s working port times

The old grain warehouses that line the canals are red brick and iron - known as British style

In Retiro, we saw the Torre Monumental or the Torre de los Ingleses, a gift from the British in 1910 to commemorate the centennial of the May Revolution of 1810.

Torre Monumental or Tower of the English

Buenos Aires Law School

We traveled to Recoleta and drove by the large silver flower statue, the Floralis Generica.  The stainless steel flower shaped sculpture was created by Argentine architect Eduardo Fernando Catalano.  It’s mechanical structure was designed to open and close its petals in tune with the sun.  Its design used a hydraulic system that is controlled by photoelectric sensors that are sued to measure the sun’s intensity.  Catalano said he created this unique structure to symbolize hope reborn every day.

Symbolizing hope reborn every day

Statue of Jose de San Martin - Liberator of Argentina - and his children

Next we drove through Monserrat and Centro, and saw the Casa Posada (Pink House) which is in the Plaza de Mayo.  The Casa Posada houses the office of the President of Argentina and is the seat of the national government.  It’s pink balconies are famous for the speeches made by the Presidents - including President Juan and Eva Peron, during their time in office in the late 40’s and early 50’s.

Also on Plaza de Mayo, we saw the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral, which is the main Catholic Church of Argentina and the cathedral for the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires.  Pope Francis was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires for 15 years.  At the time known as Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio, he held mass at the Cathedral before moving to the Vatican in 2013.

Lovely old mansion, now the Embassy for Brazil

Teatro Colon (Columbus Theater) - one of the world's great opera houses

Casa Rosada "the Pink House" - the office of the President with its famous balconies

Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral, now also houses a museum to Pope Francis

Our next stop was in the San Telmo neighborhood, to see the museum El Zanjon de Granados.  San Telmo is one of the oldest of Buenos Aires’ neighborhoods, and was originally adjacent to the Rio de la Plata. 

Interesting architecture in the San Telmo neighborhood