El Cemetario en Recoleta

Recoleta Cemetery 

A few days ago we visited the cemetery in Recoleta, and it was incredible. I had never seen anything like it in my life. It was built in 1732 and was remodeled 2 times. It contains the graves of some of the most important Argentines including, Evita and several presidents, as well as normal everyday people. The picture above is the outside of the cemetery which has beautiful greek columns and an inscription at the top of the building that reads "Requiescant in Pace", meaning rest in peace in Latin.

Once entering the cemetery, you see elaborately decorated marble mausoleums with many statues and all different architectural styles. Mausoleums are purchased so that the whole family can be buried together. In one mausoleum, I was able to see over 10 coffins!

There are many tree lined blocks within the cemetery; it takes several hours to see it all. I found it very interesting that famous people as well as everyday people are buried here. A lot of people saved up money during their life time just so they could be buried here. One man that our guide told us about, worked at the cemetery his whole life and saved up his money to design his grave and to be buried there.

The mausoleum in the picture below cost 2 million dollars! It is amazing to me how much people are willing to spend to have these elaborate burial sites. It is clear how important respecting and honoring the dead is in Argentine culture.

While Evita's burial site was beautiful, I expected it to be more intricate and larger in size. I personally thought that some of the other graves were more impressive. However, I love that there were flowers on her grave, especially because this is not common for the Recoleta cemetery. Other than Evita's grave, I only saw flowers on one other. The flowers put on her burial site helped brighten up the cemetery with their color. The dark marble that the mausoleum is made of adds to the beauty as well.

Evita's Burial Site