A list of occupants inside Recoleta Cemetery reads like a Who’s Who of Argentine history & society. The elite, an aspiring middle class, friends, enemies & those who contributed to the general welfare of Argentina all share space in a miniature city of mausoleums & monuments.
During this self-guided visit, you’ll stroll past Presidents & politicians (some naughty, some nice), Nobel Prize winners, literary greats, entertainers, scientists, military leaders, sports figures & even some who died tragically. The cemetery’s most famous resident, Eva María Duarte de Perón —simply Evita to her devotées— had a bizarre post-mortem journey (described in detail) before finally resting in peace in Recoleta.
Unfortunately not available in a larger size, this image from a photobook published by Peuser in 1921 shows abundant landscaping —and few people— in the area just outside the main entrance gate.
Thanks to J. Simón Tagtachian for posting this in his blog Ciencia y Fe.
No one is safe from AI these days… not even visitors to Recoleta Cemetery. When Marcelo & I began this blog in 2007, we could have never imagined writing about false content generated by artificial un-intelligence. Yet here we are.
The text repeats its own descriptions without any real content. Honestly, we try to preserve all news & information written about Recoleta Cemetery on this website for posterity’s sake but not in this case. Can’t do it. You’ll have to click on the link above to find the article.
If anyone is interested in how the Día del Difuntos (All Saints’ Day) has been truly celebrated in the past, take a look at this post: el arte en el cementerio:
Hopefully AI won’t try to bring the dead of Recoleta back to life!
Published in 1917, Illustrated Descriptive Argentina by Henry Stephens might be perhaps the most literal book title ever conceived. But as explained in the foreward, the author considers this the best way to describe Argentina:
An oracular or written description gives a person one impression; illustrations give a different one; but neither alone can convey to the mind a true idea of a place or an object such as can be imbued by the individual who read and studies a descriptive illustration. It is with this idea, therefore, that I have compiled these illustrations, and from a few words to a few paragraphs on each subject have produced “Illustrated Descriptive Argentina,” which I think is the only work of its kind.
Of course Dr. Stephens couldn’t omit Recoleta Cemetery, so let’s get his opinion:
While basic, his description is more or less accurate. But Dr. Stephens should have had access to our guidebook that advises never, ever to visit during midday… as for the “gruesome” quality of the cemetery, nothing could be further from the truth. Looks absolutely peaceful:
But he does appreciate the quality of art inside:
AYERZA MONUMENT, RECOLETA. This is undoubtedly one of the finest works of art in the Recoleta.
JOSÉ SEMINO VAULT, RECOLETA This is one of the better class vaults of the Recoleta.
DORREGO ORTIZ BASUALDO TOMB, RECOLETA The Basualdo family is one of the wealthiest of Buenos Aires. The final resting place of this member of the family is the acme of art and originality.
Apparently Dr. Stephens thought each mausoleum had been constructed for a single person instead of for use for the entire family in perpetuity. Still, his contribution is incredibly valuable to give all of us a snapshot of what Recoleta Cemetery looked like in the early 1900s… long before the city government charged an entrance fee or before celebrities crawled over crypts. He took the majority of photographs himself & gives credit when they’ve been outsourced.
Marcelo found a scanned PDF copy of this book on the Internet Archive. Please consider donating to them in order to ensure worldwide access to their enormous digital vault of information.
The above page is from the illustrated supplement of La Nación, published just before All Saints’ Day or Día de los Difuntos (Año II, Nº 61, 29 oct 1903). At the turn of the 20th century, Recoleta Cemetery had yet to become the fabulous outdoor art gallery that it is today… in fact, local critics were harsh & perhaps motivated families to up their game. Translation of the text follows:
Recoleta Cemetery reproduces the city in its layout. It is the same checkerboard, crossed at some points by diagonals, the same, somewhat monotonous structures; the old ones in brick and lime plaster, the new ones with better materials: marble, granite, porphiry, bronze. Thus, the city of the dead was ennobled by contact with the modern spirit, and the tombs evolved in magnificence and solidity, following the same parallel as civil buildings.
There is no grass in Recoleta. Just here and there, a little place for a tree, for a bush, which grow melancholically among surrounding death. Art, which uplifts sentiment toward noble ideals, appears in very few cases in the aristocratic necropolis. Beautiful monuments are still rare, and their number is certainly not in relation to that of the rich owners, nor to the development of good taste, which we sometimes notice in other aspects of our society in Buenos Aires.
For this reason, this year’s chronicle of monuments is very brief. That of D. Carlos Marín Martínez: a crypt with a small chapel superimposed, a simple work of an architect. Two others are to be inaugurated: those of the Canesa and Etchepare families, still half hidden by scaffolding, and therefore unable to be judged.
That of the Semino family was inaugurated a few months ago. It is a mythological version of Time, a humanized Saturn, in white Carrara marble waiting near a door, which rests on a piece of black marble. The robust, muscular build of the old man was modeled with vigor and skill by Mr. Fabiani.
Among the crypts, that of Dr. José C. Paz, with very few and severe lines framing a bronze door, is of good conception, built as if to destroy the centuries, and yet, not lacking in sober elegance.
But the great funerary monument of the year is the one that Ricardo Aigner has sculpted in memory of Miss Rufina Cambaceres.
It seems impossible that Mr. Aigner is the author of a bas-relief, belonging to a monument that is not worth mentioning, and whose mediocrity he would like us to forget. But in this one, the artist has spread his wings. Our photograph can barely give an idea of the soft elegance of that girl’s figure, wearing a tunic whose folds fall like tears, and who with a melancholic face turns a last glance towards this world, in which, alas! she lived for such a short time… The art nouveau style of the work with its interlacing of tall and flexible stems, and the fantastic flowers that crown it, do not detract from the tomb of a girl, and constitute a happy daring. Certain disproportions in the figure —perhaps actually existing— disappear before the harmony of the whole, before the intense expression of profound and yet resigned and gentle sadness that emanates from its features. And the observer, upon leaving this tomb, carries for a long time in his soul the impression of that extreme farewell.
This brief text brings up many points to consider…
The comparison of the cemetery to a miniature city had already been established almost 125 years ago.
Apparently La Nación evaluated new additions to the cemetery in previous years, but I haven’t found earlier issues online. Yet.
Genoan sculptor Federico Fabiani established himself as a master of funerary art with other works in Caracas & in the city of Rosario. I wonder how the Semino family heard of him, & more importantly, where did that gorgeous statue end up? The tomb of boxer Luis Ángel Firpo now sits where José Semino placed the sculpture of Father Time/Saturn.
The brilliant 1904 sculpture by Jules Felix Coutan on the José C. Paz tomb had yet to be added when this article appeared. Was it in the works already, or did this criticism spur a fancy addition?
What mediocre bas-relief by Richard Aigner does the author refer to? The only other work by Aigner in Buenos Aires I can find is a statue of Germán Burmeister commissioned many years later in 1929. Any ideas?
The next edition of the supplement (Año II, Nº 62, 05 nov 1903) shows the festivities for All Saints’ Day. Traditions have certainly changed because no one decorates their family mausoleum like this nowadays. A procession of Santa María del Socorro (from nearby Retiro) even took place inside the cemetery!
This post serves as a perfect example of why we’ve researched Recoleta Cemetery for almost 20 years: there’s always something interesting to uncover… which often leads to even more questions!
Update (04 Jul 2025): Marcelo found another group of images depicting All Saints’ Day —the last two are of Recoleta Cemetery— in the Buenos Aires society magazine Caras y Caretas from 10 Nov 1906:
Magazine text & images were scanned by Google Books. Postcard photograph of the José Semino mausoleum by Harry Grant Olds, listed in Centro de Investigación Fotográfico Histórico Argentino. Both in public domain.
