Aristocratic BA and Night of Tango

Tuesday March 19 was a bit cloudy, but the rain held off and it was about 22C again. We walked down to the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo, which is in an area of town where there are many parks and mansions.  We got there around 2:00 p.m. and decided to have lunch outside first (the sun had come out) at Croque Madame, a cafe right beside the Museum.  It was delightful sitting outside and the food and coffee was very good.

Enjoying the sun at Croque Madame

Chicken salad and sun

Originally the Museum was a mansion designed by French architect Rene Sergent (1865-1927), built between 1911-1916.  It belonged to the Errazuriz Alvear family.  Matias Errazuriz was a Chilean diplomat who married Josefina de Alvear, from a wealthy BA family, whose grandfather had been a leader in the independence movement.  Most of the materials were imported from Europe and the work done in part by European craftsmen.  Sergent never came to BA and the work was supervised by a local architect firm.  The couple spent two years decorating the mansion and building up their art and furniture collection.

In 1935, after Josefina's death,  the mansion was sold to the National Government and opened as a museum in 1937.  There are more than 5000 pieces of art, including tapestries from the 15th- 18th century, paintings by El Greco, Manet and sculptures by Rodin and Zadkine.  The furniture collection is also spectacular.  The description of each room tells what it was used for when the place was home to the Errazuriz Alvear family.  What was also interesting to us was the fact that Rene Sergent had also designed what is now the Musee de Nissim Camondo in Paris from 1911-14 ( one of our favourite Paris museums and another former house).

Outside of the museum and former home

Beautiful stairway

Drawing room

The Ballroom

Evita

After the museum, we continued our walk to Plaza San Martin where we were going to take our second BA free tour.  We passed another monument to Evita and many wonderful old trees.

Plaza San Marin is a beautiful park in the Retiro neighbourdood.  A monument to General Jose de San Martin, the independence leader, dominates a portion of the park.  The tour was entitled "Around the Aristocratic BA" and our tour leader was Victoria, who was an excellent guide.  Plaza San Martin was once the location of choice for the most elite families at the beginning of the 20th century when BA was an incredibly wealthy city.  The San Martin Palace, formerly the home of the Anchorena family, is now used by the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Circulo Militar once housed the home of the Paz family who owns La Prensa newspaper.

San Martin with pigeons

Monumento al Libertador General San Martin 1862

The former Anchorena mansion, now a protocol building of Foreign Affairs

Victoria our guide

We saw the Torre de los Ingleses (British Clock Tower), renamed Torre Monumental after the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas war.  The clock tower was a British designed and built gift from local Anglo-Argentinians for the 1910 centennial celebrations.

The British Clock Tower

We also saw the Art Deco Kavanagh Building which was finished in 1936. At that time, it became the tallest building in South America.  It was bankrolled by Irishwoman Corina Kavanagh, and is still considered an art deco landmark.

Art Deco Kavanagh building

We then walked over to the foot of the Plaza San Martin where there is a black marble cenotaph to those who were killed in the Falklands/Malvinas War.  The cenotaph is watched over by two soldiers in traditional uniforms.  Our guide told us that children are taught that the Malvinas belong to Argentina.  She also explained how in 1982, the dictatorship launched the war as a way of regaining popularity.  Very young, untrained men were sent to the war without adequate clothing and food.  She mentioned that President Kirchner had asked the new Pope to intervene with the British to try and get the Malvinas back (highly unlikely!).

Names of the 649 men who died in the 1982 war

The guards in traditional gear

We continued our walk, seeing lots of interesting store windows.

Colourful window

We also passed another amazing mansion that was built in the French style, with all materials and craftspeople imported from France.  There was a large immigration at the turn of the century of wealthy people from Europe (mainly Italy).  The French style was widely admired at that time and that is why so many buildings were built in this style. The immigration bubble burst with the first world war and after the 1929 Depression many of the mansions were sold.  Our guide told us that there used to be 108 of these large mansions, of which only 38 exist today.  The others were torn down to make way for new buildings.

All materials imported from France

We then arrived at the location of the former Israeli Embassy.  Twenty-nine trees are planted at the site, for each of those murdered in the 1992 bombing.  The victims' names are etched into a wall in the Plaza.  March 17, 2013 marked the 21st anniversary of the bombing, which explains the flowers at the site.

29 trees at the plaza

20th anniversary plaque

Where the embassy used to be

Flowers placed on Sunday

We walked by another park where two women were enjoying yerba mate.  Yerba mate is like a green tea and is a social drink.  The leaves are placed in a gourd and hot water added.   One drinks with a metal straw that is shared between people.  It is very hard to find yerba mate in a cafe or restaurant.  Everyone buys the tea in the supermarkets and we saw a number of people enjoying a mate in the parks.  They carry thermoses of hot water with them.

Enjoying a yerba mate

We also passed the French Embassy.  This building used to be one of the great mansions (built 1912), but was slated for demolition.  The owners sold to the French in 1940 for use as the Embassy and it has thus been saved.

French Embassy

The last leg of our tour was a street in the fashionable neighbourhood of Recoleta which housed another three former mansions.  One is now the Vatican Embassy, the second is a Hyatt Hotel and the third remains in a single family hands.  They are elderly and it is said that they may give the house to the City.

Now the Vatican Embassy

Now a Hyatt Hotel- hard to imagine this was once a single family home

Still in one elderly family's hands- largely boarded up

We ended the tour at Plaza Francia near the famous Recoleta Cemetery, which we still have to visit.  The Basilica Nuestra Senora del Pilar at one end of the Plaza was consecrated in 1732 and is a beautiful colonial church.

Writing notes at the end of the tour

Basilica Nuestra Senora del Pilar

The tour ended just after 7:00 p.m. and we walked back to the apartment, picking up provisions as we went.


After a late dinner, we went to Salon Canning, a tango salon just around the corner from us.  Salon Canning has a great parquet dance floor and is the scene of a traditional milonga (tango dance nights).  The milonga starts at 11:00 p.m. and goes until 4:00 a.m.  The entrance fee is only around $9 CAN.  We were surprised to see a huge crowd when we arrived at 11:45 p.m.  Over 300 people were there by the time we left at 2:00 a.m.  We sat in the back and watched as we are not "Tangoistas".  There were some wonderful dancers and at around 1:15 a.m. a live band started to play. There were also a few demonstration dances by two couples.  A fabulous experience and much better than going to a fancy tango show.  Very glad to have experienced the tango scene in BA.

Salon Canning

Crowded dance floor

All the dancers were wearing tango shoes

The announcer just before the couples danced

The demo

The live band

It was a great experience.  We spoke to a couple from Argentina who now live in Norway and run a small tour company.  The man was telling us that when he was in his twenties he would stay up all night dancing tango.  He was in his 60s now and said that he wanted to return to BA when he was older, as even the very elderly go to these traditional milongas to dance.

Back to the apartment at 2:00 a.m.  A long, but satisfying day in BA.