Self-Guided Buenos Aires Walking Tour

Buenos Aires City History Tour: Plaza de Mayo, Avenida de Mayo, Plaza Congreso

Below is a simplified tour route of the original BuenosTours ‘Buenos Aires City History Tour‘ – covering the historical heart of the city and many of it’s most important buildings, in addition to a lot of fantastic architecture, and some great cafes. It starts in Plaza de Mayo, home to the executive arm of the Argentine government (the Casa Rosada), ends in Plaza Congreso outside the legislative arm (the Congress building) and walks down Avenida de Mayo in between, the ‘grand boulevard’ of Buenos Aires that connects these two most important of Buenos Aires structures.
So, if this sounds like the kind of tour you’ll be looking for during your visit to Buenos Aires, then either print out this blog post to do a self-guided walking tour, or contact us to book a private guided walking tour – far more enjoyable and hassle-free than struggling round the busy city center with an upside down map clasped in your hands!

Suggested Walking Tour of Buenos Aires

To get some organizational matters in order first, this is how you read this self-guided tour to Buenos Aires:

• The directions (where to walk, look, stop etc) are written in italics
• Each stop is numbered and contains a brief overview of the attraction
• For further help, the attractions can be found numbered on the tour map at the end of this post

The descriptions of each attraction are quite short and sweet for now, to avoid a ‘War and Peace’ walking tour, and as you will see it is already pretty long even with just the succinct overviews of each stop. However, in the near future many of the attractions found on this tour will be written up in greater detail, in blog posts of their own, then linked to from within this post so that you can find more information on anything that interests you.
Anyway, please read on for the self-guided walking tour of Buenos Aires city center…

Start in Plaza de Mayo, at the end of the square that has a big statue of a guy on a horse (Manuel Belgrano, for the record), and first look back down the square to get an overall view of it…

Plaza de Mayo

Since Buenos Aires was successfully founded in 1580, Plaza de Mayo (‘May Square’) has been the center of city life. From the early days it was surrounded by government (the Cabildo – colonial government HQ), religion, (the Cathedral), and military (the Buenos Aires fort, which used to stand where the Pink House is located).

Plaza de Mayo was originally called Plaza Mayor (‘Main Square’), and then later went through a few more name changes due to it being split into two squares in c.1800 when a colonial market building known as a Recova was built, running across the width of the square, at approximately where you can see the metal barriers today. The Recova was demolished in 1884 by Mayor Alvear as part of his modernization of Buenos Aires, and only at that point did the whole square become known as Plaza de Mayo, as it is today.
OK, now turn around and stand with Argentina’s government house facing you across the road. Yes, that’s the big pink one… 😉
1. Casa Rosada: The ‘Pink House’ succeeded the Cabildo as government house in 1873. There are many theories as to why it is pink, my favorite being that there was a white paint shortage during President Sarmiento‘s reign, so his men mixed the paint with cows’ blood to make it last longer (and for damp-proofing), giving the striking shade of pink. The balcony to your left (not the center) was where President Peron & his wife Evita gave speeches to crowds of up to 200,000 in Plaza de Mayo. In the years since then the balcony has become the focal point of many national events and announcements.
Now turn back around to face the rest of the plaza, and walk past the fountains, then round the right hand side of the metal riot barriers (how lovely!) and keep going to the center of the Plaza until you are facing the tall white monument in it’s center…

2. Pyramide de Mayo: The ‘May Pyramid’ was built in 1811 to celebrate the 1^st anniversary of the “May Revolution” on 25^th May 1810. The original pyramid was wooden, only being set in stone in 1856. The white scarf symbols on the ground circling the pyramid represent the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, an association of mothers whose children were “disappeared” (i.e. murdered) by the Argentine military dictatorship of 1976-83. Each Thursday since 1977 the madres have formed a protest around the pyramid, wearing white scarves representing the diapers of their lost children.
Keep walking in the same direction, past the pyramid, to the other end of the square, and stand looking at the Cabildo; a simple, white arched building across the road…
3. The Cabildo: A rare example of colonial architecture left in the city, the Cabildo was the original colonial government building from 1609-1810. Due to the structurally weak building material called adobe that was used in colonial times, it had to be rebuilt many times in its early years. Around the turn of the 20^th century, 6 of its original 11 colonial arches were demolished to make way for the building of Avenida de Mayo (1894) & Diagonal Sur (1930s). Yet it still contains some of its original foundations/walls, and therefore lays claim to being the oldest building left standing in Buenos Aires.
Now turn right from where you were facing and walk over to the corner crossing, facing the Cathedral, which with all those classical columns might have you thinking it is actually a Greek Temple…

4. Cathedral (Exterior): The most important Catholic building in Argentina, and so one of the most important buildings here period, as Argentina is a Catholic state. The Cathedral was built at the same time as the Cabildo, using the same weak adobe. However, the Cathedral fared even worse than the Cabildo, suffering 7 total collapses in 200 years. In 1827 this sturdier neo-classical stone construction was completed. The 12 Corinthian columns represent the apostles; the facade engraved with a scene from Genesis, where Joseph is reunited with his father and brothers in Egypt.
Carefully make you way over the two stage road-crossing to your right, head up the steps at the front of the Cathedral and walk a few steps to the right until you get to the central entrance. Before you go in, note the eternal flame down the far end of the external wall, burning in memory of General San Martin, the independence hero whose tomb you will see inside. Go in the door and turn right to enter the main cathedral…

5. Cathedral (Interior): The Cathedral interior is beautiful and peaceful, but the main attraction is found in the fourth small altar along the right-hand corridor. Here lies the remains of General San Martin, who led Argentina’s revolutionary troops to victory over the Spanish loyalists in the 1810-16 wars of independence, before proceeding to help liberate Chile, Peru & Ecuador between 1817-22, as can be seen on the plaque fronting his magnificent tomb. The two scary guys with swords are Granaderos, the regiment San Martin created, and guard his body Mon-Sat.
After a good look around the rest of the interior, exit the Cathedral again through the main entrance, and first cross over to the central traffic island, before crossing over to you right. Once safely over, go left and walk towards the next street corner, which is the start of Avenida de Mayo (you will see a street sign on this corner). At this corner, turn right to begin walking down this wonderful avenue…

Avenida de Mayo – Part 1

Avenida de Mayo was opened in 1894, built to be Buenos Aires’ grand boulevard, like the Champs-Elysees in Paris or the Gran Via of Madrid. Buenos Aires looks to Europe for much of its culture, often being labeled the “Paris of The Americas”. This isn’t surprising when you consider that Argentines are largely descended from recent European immigrants, mainly from Italy, but also Spain, France & Germany among others. They arrived between 1880 & 1930, when Argentina had one of the fastest growing economies in the world. With immigration came foreign investment, enabling extravagant Avenida de Mayo to be built with no expense spared…

Due to its construction at the turn of the 20^th century, the avenue contains a fair amount of beautiful Parisian-inspired Art Nouveau and Beaux Arts buildings, when these over-the-top architectural styles were at the height of their popularity. These days, while the street and many of its buildings are in desperate need of repair, it’s not hard to imagine how glorious it was during its heyday, especially if you look up at the beautiful architecture that lines the avenue (but please walk carefully as you do so).
Now walk down Av. de Mayo a little and cross over at the first crossing. When you get to the other side, turn around and look back across at the former La Prensa building – it has it’s name in front of a large statue up on the roof…
6. Former La Prensa Building: Constructed in 1898 as the offices for the La Prensa newspaper, this is a great example no the no-expense spared philosophy the avenue was built to. The grand exterior has imposing cast-iron doors, curvy lamps, bronze ornamentation, carved granite, and a Mansard roof, like the Louvre in Paris. The inside is equally elegant. Up top is a 4 ton statue of Greek Goddess Pallas Athenea: her lit torch and printed page symbolize press freedom. Peron didn’t agree with the sentiment, shutting the paper down after coming to power in 1946. The building now houses the Casa de la Cultura.
Looking back at street level, you should now be standing next to the steps down to Peru subway station on the A Line. Go down the steps for a trip back in time…

7. Peru Subte Station: When it was built in 1913, Buenos Aires subway Line A became the first subway in the southern hemisphere, and also within the Spanish speaking world. Peru is the best preserved station on the whole line, like descending into a time capsule of BA city life almost 100 years ago, with its atmospheric dim lamp lighting, period kiosk stalls, hand painted wall adverts, colorful tiling, and most interestingly of all, the original wooden subway cars with manual sliding doors. With a bit of luck, you’ll get to ride one of these in a moment.
Turn to the booth selling subway tickets, queuing if needs be, and when at the ticket window say “uno” or “dos” or “tres” etc (depending on how many tickets you want, silly) – the tickets cost 70 centavos each and they will give change, but it is probably not advisable trying to pay with anything over a 10 peso note. Once you have the tickets, use them in them automatic turnstile to get through onto the station platform…
8. Riding the A Line: You’ll probably want to ride in an old restored wooden subway car, so wait until one arrives, as some of the trains are new. Get on and ride one stop up to Piedras station. The line runs the length of Avenida de Mayo and beyond, and when it was built in 1913 (for any Brits or Anglophiles out there, it is British built) the trains were hurtling along underground while horse-drawn carriages still ran on the street above. The creaky old ride is often a bumpy one, so make sure you hold on tight, but still take the chance to survey the all-wooden interior.
Once you’ve survived the short ride to Piedras station, go straight through the turnstiles and up th steps on your left hand side to exit back on to the avenue. Once there, walk a few steps to where you can cross over to the other side of the avenue. Then turn to your left after crossing and walk a little bit down to Cafe Tortoni, at Av. de Mayo 825…

9. Cafe Tortoni: The cafe in a city of cafes. Tortoni is the most famous and oldest cafe in Buenos Aires, founded in 1858. By 1920 Cafe Tortoni had become home to many intellectuals & artists’ meetings in Buenos Aires. Famous past patrons include painter Benito Quinquela Martin, writer Jorge Luis Borges, and tango singer Carlos Gardel. The main attraction is the ornate interior: tall Ionic columns, stained-glass skylights, restored oak tables, plus paintings, pictures & models of illustrious clientèle, all create a great setting to enjoy your cafe con leche y tres medialunas.
From Cafe Tortoni, keep walking in the same direction to the end of the block (the cross-street is Tacuari), and before you cross look down to your left where you will see a somewhat makeshift plaque resting on the floor…

10. Plaque to Gaston Riva: Gaston Riva was shot dead by the police on this spot during the riots that occurred during Argentina’s economic meltdown in December 2001. After the government froze all bank accounts, there was widespread rioting and looting on the 19th – 20th December in this area around Plaza de Mayo, and across the rest of the country, and when the police were dispatched to deal with it they sadly ended up shooting dead 26 people, including poor Gaston Riva here. Adding insult to injury, the memorial plaque has clearly been broken from its former vertical position.
Cross over Tacuari and keep walk the length of the next block, noticing the interesting modern mural of Buenos Aires across the street, until you reach a huge intersection of traffic that you probably heard coming. Wait here before you start the long staged crossing…

Crossing 9 de Julio

You are standing in front of Avenida 9 de Julio, a massive 140m wide avenue that porteños claim to be the widest street in the world. It may take a few traffic light cycles to cross safely, so please be patient and cross safely.

Av. 9 de Julio was opened in 1936, although expansion continued right the way through to the 1960s. Unfortunately building the road meant that many city blocks had to be turned to rubble, many containing beautiful or historic buildings. The only two that survived along the route were the large and ugly government communications building to the south, and the small but perfectly formed French Embassy to the north.
Make your way over the many crossings in front of you, until you reach the traffic island in the very center. While you are waiting for the traffic lights to turn in your favor, here’s a bite size piece Argentine history to digest…
11. Argentine Independence: Avenida 9 de Julio is so named to mark the date when Argentina (then known as the “United Provinces of the River Plate”) declared official independence from its former colonial rulers, Spain. This occurred on the 9th July, 1816, at the “Congress of Tucuman”. However, this date is not the most important on the Argentine calendar… independence was really gained in the “May Revolution” of 25th May, 1810: it just took six years for things to become ‘official’ (even then, this was not recognized by world powers for a few more years).
Once in the central traffic island of Avenida 9 de Julio, turn to your right and look down the avenue where you will notice a very conspicuous looking large white monument standing proudly erect a few blocks away…

12. El Obelisco: The Obelisk has been dominating the skyline of this area since it opened in May 1936 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the (supposed) 1st attempt to found Buenos Aires, by Spanish sailor Pedro de Mendoza. It also stands in the spot where the Argentine flag was raised for the first time. At 68m tall, the Obelisk is a pretty obvious meeting place. In fact, after important sporting victories, it is the place to meet for a rowdy, traffic-halting celebration. Recently, on World AIDS Awareness Day, a giant pink condom was placed over the Obelisk for a day. No kidding!

Continue the long journey over 9 de Julio until you are on the last traffic island, where you can glance over to your left to see an interesting modern sculpture…
13. Don Quijote de la Mancha Sculpture: This sculpture was a gift from Queen Sofia of Spain to mark the 400th anniversary of the successful founding of Buenos Aires by the Spanish in 1580, led by Juan de Garay. Many say that one reason this founding was successful where previous attempts had failed was that it brought along one vital magic ingredient… a woman! Her name was Ana Diaz, and she is credited with playing an important role in the settling of Buenos Aires. Perhaps without her woman’s touch, Buenos Aires would not have been settled and you wouldn’t be visiting this great city…
Make the last crossing over 9 de Julio to rejoin Avenida de Mayo…

Avenida de Mayo – Part 2

This concluding stretch of Avenida de Mayo is a bit of a mixed bag. Along the way you will see some fantastic individual pieces of architecture, which unfortunately are randomly distributed in among some modern monstrosities that have taken their toll on the overall design of the avenue. However, don’t let poor city planning get in the way of your enjoyment, as the individual buildings along this stretch really are a joy to behold.

In addition to the modern buildings that have taken away a little of the avenues heritage, at street level things have also deteriorated a fair bit, and as you will be looking up at quite a lot of the buildings from here on, please be careful not to trip on the cracked/missing pavement as you go.
Cross over to the left hand side of Avenida de Mayo at the first crossing immediately after 9 de Julio, then continue down the block until you reach the Hotel Castelar on your left, at Av. de Mayo 1152…
14. Hotel Castelar: The Castelar was opened in 1928 with the claim of being the 1st hotel in South America with a ‘refrigerated parlor’. Strange, but true: the thick Italian Carrara marble that lines the walls keeps internal temperatures at 6^oc lower than outside, during the hot Buenos Aires summer. A plaque on the marble wall states that famous Spanish writer Federico Garcia Lorca stayed here in room number 704, from October 1933 – March 1934. Just two and a half years later, at the tender age of 38, Lorca was murdered by nationalists at the start of the Spanish Civil War.
Continue down the block and at the end, not only cross over Salta, but also cross over to the right hand side of the avenue, and walk down a little way before stopping to look back across the road at the small Teatro Avenida theater…
15. Teatro Avenida: This theater was where Lorca put on his play Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding), during his 6 month stay in Buenos Aires. It is part of his ‘rural trilogy’, regarded to be one of the best works of Spanish language theater of the past 100 years. After his untimely murder in Spain, with his works banned there by General Franco, the 2nd & 3rd parts were put on in the Teatro Avenida, allowing his work to still be enjoyed by many. The theater, which opened in 1908, was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1979. It was restored in 1994, but unfortunately to nowhere near its former glory.
Go a little further down this block and soon, on your right hand side, you will come across Bar 36 Billares, at Av. de Mayo 1265…
16. Bar 36 Billares: Third and final stop on this mini Lorca tour within a tour; Bar 36 Billares was his favorite watering hole while in Buenos Aires. With the places he slept, worked and relaxed all within a block, he obviously didn’t like to walk far! The bar itself became the first place with billiard tables in Argentina when it opened in 1894, the same year Avenida de Mayo was inaugurated. It is a nice example of a traditional bar to share a bottle or three of Quilmes beer (far from my favorite, but an Argentine institution) with friends, and maybe play a few games of billiards or pool.
Walk down to the end of the block, cross over Santiago del Estero, and then on the corner turn back from where you came and look across and up at the lovely architecture of the Hotel Chile…
17. Hotel Chile: Built in 1907, the Hotel Chile is possibly the finest example of Art Nouveau along Avenida de Mayo, with its wonderful curves and twisting serpentine lines of the intricate cast iron balconies. It also has some Middle Eastern influences, with a lovely decorative glazed ornamental tiling above the windows, in a style known as Faience, found in many Arabic countries. The Hotel Chile was once crowned by a magnificent wooden dome, but this was destroyed by fire in 1988 along with much of the original interior – unfortunately the Hotel is not a great place to stay these days.
Begin walking down this next block, and soon on your right you will be standing next to a very interesting building at Avenida de Mayo 1333…
18. Former Critica Building: This building, once home to the left-wing Critica newspaper (Borges was a contributer), is a complete departure from the Art Nouveau seen along the rest of the avenue. It was built in 1926, a good 10 years later than most other old buildings along the avenue, when Art Nouveau had become distinctly passé and Art Deco was the hot new style. It’s zig-zag lines and geometrical shapes are a nice change from all those curves, along with the neo-Egyptian sculptures and ships bows, all common Art Deco themes. Now home to the Federal Police HQ!
Walk a bit further along the block until you have a good view across the avenue to what is obviously the tallest building in this area, the one with a central tower. It is probably best to walk slightly past it to get a good perspective when looking up at the building…
19. Palacio Barolo: Easily my favorite building on the avenue. Built by Italians Luigi Barolo & Mario Palanti in honor the father of their language, Dante Alighieri, it plays tribute to his epic poem ‘The Divine Comedy’. It’s three sections represent the three books of the poem; Hell, Purgatory & Paradise. It’s 100m height represents the 100 verses, and 22 floors for the number of stanzas in each verse, along with many other numerical & architectural tributes. When it was built in 1923 it was for a short while the tallest building in South America, and remained the tallest in Buenos Aires until 1935.
Keep going to the end of the block and cross over San Jose, then find a good spot anywhere on the next block to look over and across the road at the large building which takes up the whole block on the other side of the avenue…
20. La Inmobiliaria Building: Built in 1910 as offices for the now defunct La Inmobiliaria insurance company, this block-filler offers a nice segue from the Art Nouveau of Av. de Mayo to the Neo-Classical themes that will soon be seen on the Argentine Congress building, in that it combines both architectural styles. The colorful decorative tiled sign of the building’s name across the top, cute cast-iron balconies and red domes that grace each corner are distinctly Art-Nouveau, while Neo-Classical embellishments include Ionic columns & prominent statues of the Greek Gods.
Finish walking to the end of the block, where you will come to the end of Avenida de Mayo, and be staring across into the long, rectangular Plaza Congreso in front of you…

Plaza Congreso

The Plaza de Los Dos Congresos as it is officially known, or Plaza Congreso for short, was designed to be the place where Buenos Aires would celebrate the May Revolution centenary of 1910.

Just 16 years previously, Avenida de Mayo had been built to finish directly in front of the Congress building, and therefore many completely new, extravagant buildings like you saw along the rest of the avenue had to be demolished to make way for the building of Plaza Congreso. Talk about a lack of forward planning!
Still standing on the right-hand end corner of Avenida de Mayo, look over diagonally to your right where you should be able to see a small theater with some gold trim on the corner of Rivadavia and Luis Saenz Peña…
21. Teatro Liceo: This is the oldest theater in Buenos Aires, founded in 1872. It also happens to be the stage where a struggling young 1940s actress called Eva Duarte performed on her way to a moderately successful stage, film and radio acting career. The small fame she achieved gave her the opportunity to meet politician Juan Peron, the pair quickly married in 1945, and the newly-named Evita Peron soon became one of the most famous first ladies ever. Incidentally, her movies were soon banned in Argentina, as it was not the done thing for politicians to mix with entertainers back then!
Cross over to the left-hand side of Avenida de Mayo, then cross over again, forward into the start of Plaza Congreso, where you will soon see a statue on your left, next to the huge tree…

22. Moreno Statue: This initial area after Av. de Mayo is officially called Plaza Moreno, though most people consider it as part of Plaza Congreso. It is named after Mariano Moreno, whose statue stands under the branches of the huge tree. Moreno was the secretary of the 1st Argentine self-ruling government in 1810, in addition to founding the 1st Argentine paper (the Buenos Aires Gazette) & the national library, while still finding time to be an independence hero… quite a busy guy! Sadly however, shortly after the May Revolution, Moreno was assassinated by Spanish loyalists.
Walk straight ahead down the center of the Plaza, until you come to a small but familiar bronze statue…
23. The Thinker: One of the few original-cast made copies of Rodin’s famous sculpture Le Penseur, or “The Thinker” in English. One theory is that it was sculpted in the image of Dante sitting outside the gates of Hell, pondering the great journey ahead of him (as depicted in the ‘Divine Comedy’) – therefore it’s position here is extremely appropriate, in that it faces the Palacio Barolo, another tribute to Dante’s epic poem, that also has its very own ‘gates of Hell’. Yet it seems that the only ones that appreciate this are the pigeons, who obviously can’t get enough of classic French sculpture 😉
Keep walking past the statue, down the center of the Plaza, and when you get to the road that intersects the middle of it, turn left to walk to the left-hand corner of the Plaza. Before you cross, look over the road to your left, where you should be able to see a small cafe…

24. Madres de Plaza de Mayo Cafe: This is the HQ of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo (whose symbols you saw back at the start of the tour), where they run a cafe, bookstore and university, to help fund their activities. Behind the sign above the cafe are photos of some of the estimated 30,000 ‘disappeared’ victims, the children of the mothers, who went missing during the military regime of 1976-83. Many were thought to have been drugged and pushed to their deaths from planes over the Rio de la Plata. Only now are some of the perpetrators being tried for these crimes against humanity.
Cross over into the second part of Plaza Congreso and walk down the left-hand side of the square. This area can be a little unsavory at times, but it is not dangerous. When you get to near the end of the square, find a good position to take a look at the large monument to your right…

25. Monumento de los Dos Congresos: The centerpiece statue and fountain of Plaza Congreso was imported to order from Brussels in 1908, made from marble & bronze. The central figure represents the Argentine Republic, holding a laurel branch for victory (over colonial Spain) and resting on a plow, for the hard work of those that built the country. The statues each side represent the two key congresses in Argentine history: May 1810 and July 1816, that saw independence gained. The fountain symbolizes the main rivers of Argentina’s plains, all flowing into a pool, that is the River Plate estuary.
Turn round from looking at the monument to take a better look at the grand old Congress building over the road. Do not cross yet, as the best view of Congress from the outside is from here across the road. Also, on some days, you may not be able to cross the road with ease, as the area between the monument and Congress is often the starting place for protests. Again, don’t worry, these are not dangerous…
26. Congress Building: The most imposing building in BA opened in 1906, although it wasn’t finished until 1946! 40 years late is about average round here. Worth the wait though, as it is an architectural masterpiece, combining many influences to great effect: mainly neo-classical, but also with nods and winks to the US Capitol, the Garnier Opera House in Paris & Berlin’s Brandenburg Gates. Made from massive blocks of granite, 2m thick at the base, thus providing a safe haven for politicians from protests outside. One room is named after Evita, and painted a similar pink as the Casa Rosada!
Having started this Buenos Aires City Tour with something pink, at the Casa Rosada, it is quite appropriate to also end it on a pink note, so that is the end of the tour. If you were following along from a printed version of this page, well done for not getting lost along the way!
If you wish to return back to near the start of the tour to re-gain your bearings, you can go to Congreso subte station diagonally over the road to your right, and ride the A Line back to either the Peru or Plaza de Mayo station. That’s it!

Map of this self-guided Buenos Aires City Center Tour

You can find each of the numbered attractions detailed above in the following map. The majority of the numbered ‘pins’ point to the location of the attraction itself, which is not necessarily the exact place to stop – a number of the attractions are best viewed from across a road etc, as detailed in the directions in italics throughout the writing above. Oh, actually number 12 is the place to stop to view the Obelisk on this tour… obviously the real Obelisk itself is a few blocks down Avenida 9 de Julio, so it is not visible on this tour map.

We hope you enjoyed reading this suggested route for a Buenos Aires city tour, and if you happen to print it out and follow it, then please enjoy!
However, if you are the type of person who likes to enjoy a more hassle-free, interesting vacation, please do consider taking the above walking tour with a personal, private guide – cut out the stress and worries, get personally informed on a whole lot more fascinating and useful info about Buenos Aires not mentioned in this post, have any questions answered about the tour or the city in general, and of course, enjoy a walking tour which might just be the happiest, most enjoyable part of your time in Buenos Aires!
If that all sounds good to you, then please…
BOOK A PRIVATE WALKING TOUR OF BUENOS AIRES CITY CENTER

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