Tales from the crypt. Recoleta Cemetery

Do you know what I liked the most in Buenos Aires? Never guess! Cemetery. A beautiful place with its own unique history. But very gloomy. Broken coffins, cobwebs of crypts, rusty doors, sculptures, clearly coming to life after midnight. Recoleta - ready-made sets for some Hollywood horror movie. Seriously, you can shoot there without special effects.

Although life reigns there in the daylight: guided tours are conducted around the cemetery, lonely tourists read the nameplates. Take a selfie. And around the cemetery - residential buildings, a shopping center, a hotel. Everything alive, bright. But here darkness prevails ...

At the beginning of the 18th century, Franciscan ascetics settled on the outskirts of what was then Buenos Aires. They founded a monastery, in 1732 they built the El Pilar church and the Recoleta cemetery with it. The area was called Recoleta (from the Spanish Recoleta - ascetic).

In 1822, the monastic order was dissolved, and on November 17 of the same year, the monastery lands were turned into the first public cemetery in Buenos Aires. The founders of the cemetery are governor Martin Rodriguez and his government minister Bernardino Rivadavia.

In the 1870s, because of the yellow fever epidemic, many wealthy Buenos Aires residents moved from the areas of San Telmo and Montserrat to the northern part of the city, Recoleta. As the Recoleta area became prestigious, its cemetery also became the last refuge for many residents of the city from high society.

Walking around the cemetery takes half a day. Maybe a day. Almost 6 hectares of crypts, and all are works of art. Without exaggeration, many museums and private collections would envy many marble sculptures.

Most of the crypts are owned by families. Several generations were buried in them, and the coffins in them are simply stacks. A strange sight, unusual for us.

Recoleta is almost a residential quarter. Only for inanimate ... We were lucky with the weather - drizzle of fine rain, giving the right mood. Heavy clouds scratched the tops of the crypts ...

There are a lot of cats in the cemetery, I read that they are bred on purpose and they even have a feline caretaker.

Peeling coffins can be seen behind the rusty bars. Most of the crypts are neglected, they are forgotten many years ago ...

And part of the crypts looks just like a mini-mausoleum of some dictator. Can you imagine how much a place in the Recoleta cemetery can cost? This is probably the most prestigious "sleeping" area in Argentina)

The decor is completely different - from marble sculptures to forged elements and mosaic glass.

Most of the crypts are two-story, with a basement. So to say, an increase in living space.

These busts reminded me of a scene from a horror movie. I can’t remember which one ... But this is really cool for shooting horror movies!

Everything is in a web that looks surprisingly organic in this place.

Coffins again.

I saw a photo where they stand open and the remains of the crypt residents are visible. But we never found them in the cemetery. Maybe they put things in order, hid them.

And this photo is right from the "street". Such aeration ...

Recoleta is the last refuge of all the prominent figures of Argentina. Starting from presidents and generals, ending with singers and scientists. For example, this tomb of General Juan Lavalle, whose name is called the famous pedestrian street in the city center.

Doesn’t resemble the tombstones of gypsy barons in our homeland? Or criminal authorities ...

Here are the famous Eva Peron, and Francisco Moreno - for me, a personality more significant than Eva. Francisco is an explorer of Argentina, the founder of the Boy Scout movement, though he has long been deported from Recoleta to the shore of the lake.

This is a crypt of prominent warriors. He is eternally guarded by two sentries. It is easy to imagine how these sculptures come to life at night ...

The place seems to be filled with sadness and longing, but this is not felt. Maybe because most of the residents of Recoleta have been lying for a long time and only the Wikipedia pages and street names in Buenos Aires are left of them ...