Architecture
Early 20th-century palaces, a 1936 obelisk and a Calatrava bridge: the city tells its story through its buildings.
15 places
San Nicolás20 min
Obelisk
The Obelisk stands 67.5 meters tall at the intersection of Avenida 9 de Julio and Corrientes. It was inaugurated on May 23, 1936, to mark four hundred years…
San Nicolás1 h
Teatro Colón
Buenos Aires’ opera house, opened in 1908 after twenty years of construction and three architects. Its horseshoe-shaped auditorium ranks among the best in…
Balvanera1–2 h
National Congress
The seat of Argentina’s legislature, its green dome rising 80 meters at the far end of Avenida de Mayo. Designed by the Italian architect Vittorio Meano, it…
Monserrat1 h
Palacio Barolo
An office building on Avenida de Mayo that was the tallest in Buenos Aires when it opened in 1923. It was designed by the Italian architect Mario Palanti…
Must-seePuerto Madero30 min
Puente de la Mujer
A footbridge across Dique 3, one of the old docks of Puerto Madero, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and opened in December 2001.
Palermo1–2 h
Galileo Galilei Planetarium
The city’s planetarium, in the Bosques de Palermo, Palermo’s great park: a dome with a ring around it, like Saturn, beside a lake.
Recoleta30 min
UBA Law School
The UBA Law School, on Avenida Figueroa Alcorta: part of the Universidad de Buenos Aires, a working public university, with steps that span the entire front…
Must-seeRecoleta1–2 h
Recoleta Cemetery
Buenos Aires’ first public cemetery opened in 1822 in the old vegetable garden of the Recollect friars, who also gave the neighborhood its name.
Recoleta15 min
Floralis Genérica
A stainless steel and aluminum flower about 20 meters tall, standing in a reflecting pool in Plaza de las Naciones Unidas, on Avenida Figueroa Alcorta.
Recoleta30 min
El Ateneo Grand Splendid
A 1919 theater on Avenida Santa Fe that became a bookstore in 2000 and lost almost nothing along the way. It still has the dome painted by Nazareno Orlandi…
Balvanera1 h
Palacio de Aguas Corrientes
It looks like a French palace, and it’s a water tank. Finished in 1894, it stored the city’s filtered water in twelve iron tanks that could hold as much as…
Palermo1 h
King Fahd Mosque
The Palermo mosque, the largest in Latin America: two fifty-meter minarets and a great dome by Avenida del Libertador. Free guided tours.
San Nicolás1–2 h
Palacio Libertad (former CCK)
The old Central Post Office, known until 2024 as the CCK: the largest cultural center in Latin America, with free admission and free guided tours.
La Boca1 h
Usina del Arte
A brick building with a clock tower and the air of a Florentine palazzo, on Avenida Pedro de Mendoza. It was the power plant of the Compañía Italo Argentina…
Retiro30 min
Torre Monumental
The red-brick tower facing Retiro station, with a clock on each side. It was a gift from the British who lived in Buenos Aires, for the centennial of the May…