Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the continent's southeastern coast. The Greater Buenos Aires conurbation, which also includes several Buenos Aires Province districts, constitutes the third-largest conurbation in Latin America, with a population of around seventeen million.
Buenos Aires is, along with Mexico City and São Paulo, one of the three Latin American cities considered an 'alpha city'. Buenos Aires' quality of life was ranked 81st in the world and one of the best in Latin America in 2012, with its per capita income among the three highest in the region.It is the most visited city in South America and the second most visited city of Latin America.
Buenos Aires is a top tourist destination, and is known for its European-style architecture and rich cultural life. Buenos Aires held the 1st Pan American Games in 1951 as well as hosting two venues in the 1978 FIFA World Cup.
Attractions
National Historical Museum
The Argentine National Historical Museum is located in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and is a museum dedicated to the history of Argentina, exhibiting objects relating to the May Revolution and the Argentine War of Independence.
The museum houses over 50,000 items. Portions of the collection were gathered from donations of relatives of important figures in the May Revolution and the wars of independence. Other objects were part of the collection of the Public Museum (Museo Público) created in 1822 by Bernardino Rivadavia.
Its displays include regalia, belongings, furnishings and documents belonging to José de San Martín, María de los Remedios de Escalada, Manuel Belgrano, William Carr Beresford, Juan Manuel de Rosas, Bartolomé Mitre, Juan and Eva Perón, and other Argentine, as well as foreign, statesmen, lawmakers, and military figures who played key roles in the nation's history up to 1950.
Its collection of history paintings includes works by Esteban Echeverría, Cándido López, and Prilidiano Pueyrredón, among others
Buenos Aires Japanese Gardens
The Buenos Aires Japanese Gardens are a public space administered by the non-profit Japanese Argentine Cultural Foundation in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and are one of the largest Japanese gardens of its type in the world outside Japan.
Its entrance on Figueroa Alcorta Avenue led to the gardens, a cultural center, restaurant, a greenhouse known for its collection of bonsai trees and a gift shop featuring an extensive selection of Asian garden seeds, as well as craftwork made by artisans on the grounds. The central lake is crossed by the Divine Bridge, traditionally representing entry into Heaven and by the Truncated Bridge, leading to an island where Japanese medicinal herbs are grown.
The lake is surrounded by flora of Japan, such as sakura, katsura, momiji and azalea. The park, however, also features complementing species native to South America, notably tipa and floss silk trees. The lake itself is populated with carp. Small numbers of epiphytic bromeliads of genus Tillandsia can be seen as well as one orchid of the widespread and diverse genus Oncidium.
The park is also graced by a Japanese Peace Bell and a large ishidoro, as well as numerous other granite sculptures. A Japanese Buddhist Temple is maintained on the grounds and the Institute also hosts regular cultural activities for the general public.
Buenos Aires Zoo
The Buenos Aires Zoo is an 45-acre (18 ha) zoo in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The zoo contains 89 species of mammals, 49 species of reptiles and 175 species of birds, with a total of over 2,500 animals. The institution's goals are to conserve species, produce research and to educate the public.
The grassy areas of the park are full of native birds and rodents, which come to the zoo for the food thrown to the animals by visitor. Nutria, rabbits, and peacock roam the park freely. A variety of monkeys and small mammals inhabit the zoo. Although some are in cages, others are housed on the islands in the zoo's many ponds, or roam free.
At the Farm of the Zoo (La Granja Del Zoo), visitors can pet and feed ponies, donkeys, sheep, and goats. This part of the zoo is also home to turkeys, chickens, roosters, pigs, rabbits, cows and horses.
At the Aquarium, visitors can see penguins, as well as fresh water fish including piranha and sea dwellers such as striped bream, grouper, black sea bass, sea catfish, and many tropical fish. The aquarium also has a seal show, for which visitors must pay extra.
The Reptile house is home to the zoo's reptiles.
The Tropical Rainforest does not house many animals. It is a two story building displaying tropical plant life, and contains an indoor waterfall. A large iguana is kept on the grounds outside the exit from this exhibit.
Big cats at the zoo include white tigers, pumas, cheetahs, jaguars and lions. The lions are housed in a castle complex with its own moat. Four white tiger cubs, two males and two females, recently born (January 14, 2013) from Cleo a Bengal white tiger, are now on display at the zoo for the public to visit.
Other animals at the zoo include red panda, camels, llamas, giraffes, bison, hippos, and elephants. Polar bears are housed in an exhibit that includes an underwater viewing area. Camels are exhibited amidst Moroccan-style architecture. The flamingoes are in a lake near the entrance near Byzantine "ruins" and kangaroos are surrounded by aboriginal paintings. The elephant house is built to look like the ruins of an Indian temple.
La Recoleta Cemetery
La Recoleta Cemetery is a cemetery located in the Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It contains the graves of notable people, including Eva Perón, presidents of Argentina, Nobel Prize winners, the founder of the Argentine Navy, and a granddaughter of Napoleon. In 2011, the BBC hailed it as one of the world's best cemeteries, and in 2013, CNN listed it among the 10 most beautiful cemeteries in the world.
The entrance to the cemetery is through neo-classical gates with tall Doric columns.[ The cemetery contains many elaborate marble mausoleums, decorated with statues, in a wide variety of architectural styles such as Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Baroque, and Neo-Gothic, and most materials used between 1880 and 1930 in the construction of tombs were imported from Paris and Milan. The entire cemetery is laid out in sections like city blocks, with wide tree-lined main walkways branching into sidewalks filled with mausoleums.
Parque Tres de Febrero
Parque Tres de Febrero, also known as the Bosques de Palermo (Palermo Woods), is an urban park of approximately 400 hectares (about 989 acres) located in the neighborhood of Palermo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Located between Libertador and Figueroa Alcorta Avenues, it is known for its groves, lakes, and rose gardens (El Rosedal).
Designed by urbanist Jordán Czeslaw Wysocki and architect Julio Dormal, the park was inaugurated on November 11, 1875. The dramatic economic growth of Buenos Aires afterwards helped to lead to its transfer to the municipal domain in 1888, whereby French Argentine urbanist Carlos Thays was commissioned to expand and further beautify the park, between 1892 and 1912. Thays designed the Zoological Gardens, the Botanical Gardens, the adjoining Plaza Italia and the Rose Garden.
Many people use the park everyday, both on foot and bicycle, and this number increases greatly at the weekends. Boat rides are available on the three artificial lakes within the park. Close to the boating lake is the Poets' Garden, with stone and bronze busts of renowned poets, including Jorge Luis Borges, Luigi Pirandello and William Shakespeare.
Plaza San Martín
Plaza San Martín is a park located in the Retiro neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Situated at the northern end of pedestrianized Florida Street, the park is bounded by Libertador Ave.
The park was the site in 1909 of the inaugural of both the first premier hotel in Argentina (the Plaza) and of the new National Museum of Fine Arts, for which the glass and steel pavilion used at the 1889 World's Fair in Paris was enlisted; structurally inadequate, the pavilion was demolished in 1932, however. Plaza San Martín and its surroundings acquired their current physiognomy in 1936, when Charles Thays' son, Carlos León Thays, designed the esplanade surrounding the monument and when the 33-story Art Deco Kavanagh building was completed. Though the surrounding area has since seen much of its older architecture replaced by high-rises (notably the 1975 Pirelli building), the plaza has remained timeless. Its western section was separated to make way for a rerouting of Maipú Street in 1972; but President Nésto
friends of the park.
Abasto de Buenos Aires
The Abasto Shopping is one of the biggest shopping mall centers in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The building was the central wholesale fruit and vegetable market in the city ("Mercado de Abasto") from 1893 to 1984. Since 1999, it has served as a shopping mall. It is also famous for being in the area where the tango singer Carlos Gardel, known as El Morocho del Abasto ("the dark-haired guy from Abasto"), lived for most of his life. Today, the surrounding area, though part of the Balvanera neighbourhood, is sometimes referred to as Abasto.
The Abasto Shopping centre is served by the adjoining underground station Carlos Gardel of line B metro.
Teatro Colón
The Teatro Colón is the main opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is ranked the third best opera house in the world by National Geographic, and is acoustically considered to be amongst the five best concert venues in the world. The other venues are Berlin's Konzerthaus, Vienna's Musikverein, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Boston's Symphony Hall.
The present Colón replaced an original theatre which opened in 1857. Towards the end of the century it became clear that a new theatre was needed and, after a 20-year process, the present theatre opened on 25 May 1908, with Giuseppe Verdi's Aïda.
The Teatro Colón was visited by the foremost singers and opera companies of the time, who would sometimes go on to other cities including Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
See also
- C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group
- Largest cities in the Americas
- List of mayors and chiefs of government of Buenos Aires
- List of metropolitan areas by population
- List of twin towns and sister cities of Buenos Aires
- Lists of capitals
- Lists of cities
- OPENCities
- Outline of Argentina
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