The most popular tourist sites are found in the historic core of the city, in the Montserrat and San Telmo neighborhoods. Buenos Aires was conceived around the Plaza de Mayo, the colony's administrative center. To the east of the square is the Casa Rosada, the official seat of the executive branch of the government of Argentina. To the north, the Catedral Metropolitana which has stood in the same location since colonial times, and the Banco de la Nación Argentina building, a parcel of land originally owned by Juan de Garay.
Other important colonial institutions were Cabildo, to the west, which was renovated during the construction of Avenida de Mayo and Julio A. Roca. To the south is the Congreso de la Nación (National Congress), which currently houses the Academia Nacional de la Historia (National Academy of History). Lastly, to the northwest, is City Hall.
Avenida de Mayo links the Casa Rosada with the Argentine National Congress. On this avenue there are several buildings of cultural, architectural, and historical importance, such as Casa de la Cultura, the Palacio Barolo and Café Tortoni. Underneath the avenue, the first subte (metro) line Line A in South America, opened in 1913. The avenue ends at Plaza del Congreso, which features a number of monuments and sculptures, including one of Auguste Rodin's few surviving original casts of "The Thinker".
On the Manzana de las Luces ("Illuminated Block") area are the San Ignacio church, the Colegio Nacional Buenos Aires, and the old city council building (1894 to 1931). This area has tunnels and catacombs, which crossed underneath the Plaza de Mayo during colonial times. The San Telmo neighborhood of Plaza Dorrego hosts an antiques fair on Sundays, complete with tango shows. Frequent tours and activities are available at the Church of Nuestra Señora de Bethlehem, the San Pedro Telmo Parish and the Antonio Ballvé Penintetiary Museum. The National Historical Museum in Parque Lezama is a few blocks south.
The borough of Recoleta is home to a number of places of interest, including the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, the Biblioteca Nacional, the Centro Cultural Recoleta, the Faculty of Law of the Universidad de Buenos Aires, the BasÃlica Nuestra Señora de Pilar, the Palais de Glace, the Café La Biela and the Cementerio de la Recoleta, where Eva Perón's crypt can be visited, among those of many other Argentine historical and cultural figures.
El Ateneo Grand Splendid, one of the city's best-known bookshops and, moved from a downtown location to Santa Fé Avenue, where "Barrio Norte" meets the borough of Palermo in a renovated former theatre, later cinema, which still shows its origins. Plaza Italia, site of a monument to Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Buenos Aires Zoo, the botanical gardens, and the Palermo woods (with paddleboat lake, rose garden, and planetarium) are all a short walk to the east of it.
PLEASE SELECT OF THE THINGS TO DO IN BUENOS AIRES, BRAZIL: