:: Buenos Aires Weekly ::

This week we’re (re)visiting parts of the Recoleta district. Recoleta cultural center was inaugurated in 1979. It seats in an old building of century 19th which belonged to monks Recoletos. Architects Santiago Bedle, Luis Benedit and Clorindo Testa reformulated certain sectors of the building. Today It holds 27 exhibition rooms where you can enjoy plastic art exhibitions, concerts, theatre, dance, performances, electro-acoustic music, video-graphic expressions, etc. The center is the pink one in the background in this picture:
Here’s a picture taken from behing the center:

It is a historic area, much frequented by tourists and the city’s residents for its cafés, galleries and the famous Recoleta cemetery. Recoleta is part of the area known as Barrio Norte, together with the neighbouring barrios of Retiro, Palermo and the northern part of Balvanera. Like its neighbours, Recoleta is an affluent residential district, initially populated by citizens escaping the 1871 yellow fever epidemic. Recoleta is one of the most expensive places to live in Buenos Aires, both in terms of real estate and of the cost of living.

Recoleta’s fair features top quality crafts. Recoleta Fair (aka Feria de Plaza Francia), which takes place Saturday and Sunday in front of Recoleta Cemetery from 10am until sunset, offers every imaginable souvenir and craft in addition to food. This has become the city’s largest fair, completely taking over all the walkways and then some in the area, and even the Iglesia Pilar, Recoleta Cemetery’s church, gets involved by setting up tables of postcards and religious souvenirs in its courtyard. Live bands sometimes play on whatever part of the hill is not taken over by vendors. Officially, the fair is only on weekends, but you will find vendors here every day, though they are technically violating the city’s vending licenses by doing so. If the police get bored and feel like enforcing the law, you’ll sometimes see arguments between them and the vendors. But don’t worry; it’s just one more part of the entertainment of the fair when this happens.