AfterLife

Typical for an election year, cultural offerings in Buenos Aires have increased over the past few weeks. Incumbent officials provide a few months of frenetic activity in an attempt to erase 3.5 years of neglect. Last night in conjunction with Earth Hour, the city sponsored “La Noche en Vela” (Candlelight Night) with different cultural activities across the city. Recoleta Cemetery participated with an announced video projection on the entrance gate beginning at 21:00. Ironically, entrance gate lights had been shut off to support Earth Hour but a multimedia show which undoubtedly used more electricity replaced them.

Although starting on time, someone had made a big PR mistake. Instead of projecting on the main gate, the show took place on a smaller service entrance. Much less engaging. In the beginning, various images of vaults displayed while an actor dressed as a caretaker paced back & forth ringing a bell. Eventually the caretaker character appeared in the video, opening the gate for spectators to look inside. More vault images raced by like a passing train while a women desperately tried to escape her inevitable death. As she laid to rest—accompanied by a cat—more still images were projected. Videos below are from various moments of the show:

Even though the tombs of Pedro Ferré & Luz María García Velloso were incorporated into the show, there was little attempt at historical narrative. The timing of the show seemed a bit off as well… certain parts went very fast while others seemed to last an eternity. Many of the crowd of approximately 500 people drifted in & out, commenting that they did not understand the purpose of the show. I think an effort to incorporate information about the cemetery’s history would have been more appropriate than the overly dramatic theater skit. While mildly entertaining, Candlelight Night at Recoleta Cemetery could have been much better.

Following the rain damage in February 2010, access to Recoleta Cemetery through the main entrance gate was restricted. Urgent repairs were necessary, & at the closing of this blog in March some restoration had begun. Returning 3.5 months later, the city government seems to have taken advantage of events to undertake a larger project.

A few details are available on an infopanel located outside. In the space of 45 days, the city will pay Naku Construcciones about 225,000 pesos (currently U$S 57,000) for restoration under the supervision of architect Santiago Jorge Bayazbakian. Of Armenian descent, Bayazbakian has done a number of works for the city under Macri’s administration. What’s unclear is how the final project will look. Sketches show day & night representations of the cemetery, but as it appeared before the staircase destruction in May 2010… no handicapped ramp to be found:

Covering the entire gate is the following text:

Aquí se encuentra el peristilo de acceso al Cementerio de la Recoleta, obra del arquitecto Juan Buschiazzo. La construcción del peristilo le fue encomendada en 1880 por el primer Intendente de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, Torcuato de Alvear, en el marco de la remodelación integral del Cementerio. Consiste en un pórtico de entrada con doble hilera de columnas dóricas y escalones de mármol de Carrara blanco. Fue declarado Monumento Histórico Nacional por Decreto 1.289/07. La obra actual busca readecuar el acceso al peristilo del Cementerio de la Recoleta, recuperando su diseño y características al momento de ser declarado Monumento Histórico, resguardando y poniendo en valor este destacado icono del Cementerio y de la ciudad.

Here can be found the peristyle entrance of Recoleta Cemetery, the work of architect Juan Buschiazzo. The peristyle’s construction was commissioned in 1880 by the first mayor of the city of Buenos Aires, Torcuato de Alvear, as part of a remodel of the entire cemetery. It consists of an entrance gate with double rows of Doric columns & white Carrara marble staircases. It was declared a National Historic Monument by Decree 1,289/07. Current works seek to refurbish the peristyle entrance, recovering its design & characteristics at the moment it was declared a historical monument, saving & recognizing this well-known icon of the cemetery & of the city.

It is interesting how the text alludes to the staircase destruction for those in the know & how it provides a cryptic message for those who don’t. There is no mention of rain damage. If the staircase is to be replaced, where will the marble come from? Seems like such a large project would take more than 45 days.

Given current works, the main entrance has been under construction/destruction for over one year:

Until completion of the project, the only access to Recoleta Cemetery is via a service entrance to the left of the main gate:

Update (07 Nov 2010): Works on the entrance gate appear to be almost complete. New bathrooms are installed, but the project has taken considerably longer than the original plan. Hopefully the main entrance will be open by the end of the year:

Update (29 Nov 2010): Scaffolding has been removed, the paint has dried, office space has been added & new restrooms have been installed. But most impressive is that the marble staircase of the entrance gate has been restored. Yea! No more handicapped access ramps & the symbols above are no longer the sickeningly sweet, Sevilla-inspired ochre yellow. They now have a mottled, aged effect which looks quite nice. The gate should be open to the public soon:

Above is a composite photo taken today requesting that anyone entering the cemetery kindly refrain from photographing caskets.

Not sure why anyone would care… part of the benefit of being laid to rest in Recoleta Cemetery is that all visitors can take a peek inside the family vault. No one seemed to be monitoring but if someone has more info about this recent regulation, I would gladly add it to this post.

Over the next couple weeks, there will be a bit of new content added here since big changes taking place at the cemetery these days… maybe even a new bio! How exciting :)

All good things must come to an end, & after several years of researching Recoleta Cemetery it’s time to move on to other projects.

That’s not to say there won’t be any more posts ever. We will likely continue to post as time permits but nothing as regular as our standard 3 posts/week. The prolonged pause is necessary in order to develop additional walking tours around Buenos Aires… & the rest of the world. Exciting stuff. Also, another year of full-time work in Europe means I will be away from Buenos Aires for most of this year.

By way of a summary, here are a few interesting stats:

First post: 03 Oct 2007

Total # of posts: 400

Total word count: almost 82,000 or about the size of a small novel

Readership: over 3,000 unique visitors per month, about 180-200 per day. Amazing for a blog about a cemetery!

Most comments: Liliana Crociati de Szaszak

Total number of photos posted: almost 1,200

Photos which can be viewed large in Flickr: 81

Number of bilingual posts: currently 155, or 39%

Posts which still need to be written: Roca, Lavalle, Dorrego, several tombs which are considered a National Historic Monument & many others

This blog will remain online for as long as possible. Since so little information in English exists about Recoleta Cemetery, this should remain a valuable resource for the future. Much work is left to be done to make the blog completely bilingual… it will come eventually. Purchasing the PDF or making a donation will help maintain this site for everyone.

The demystification of urban legends is something Marcelo & I have worked hard to accomplish. Recoleta Cemetery—the most visited site in Buenos Aires—has much more value than those few wild & crazy stories. As the last paragraph of the PDF guidebook states:

… in spite of all the money spent to be immortalized forever, it is difficult to ignore the irony that so many prominent families have fallen on hard times. Argentina today is not the country those families envisioned, whatever their personal ideology. Several of the same issues they tried to resolve still exist today for a different generation. Recoleta Cemetery should therefore offer guidance & hope for the future. What better place to be inspired by beauty, honor past achievements & learn from previous mistakes?

Due to heavy rains in Buenos Aires over the past week—the city received more than a normal month’s rainfall in just a few days—the entrance gate to Recoleta Cemetery suffered serious damage. Large portions of stucco crashed down last Saturday, & city engineers were on site Monday to figure out a course of repair.

Surprisingly enough, the ceiling is not made of brick like most buildings in Buenos Aires but merely a hollow, wooden frame. Architect Buschiazzo’s budget must have been tight in 1881:

Update (06 Mar 2010): It seems like city officials are taking advantage of the damage in order to make other improvements. The women’s restroom is currently gutted… perhaps a new one is on the way. For the moment, the men’s restroom is for the ladies. This is probably the only time to see the ceiling structure:

Posts in AfterLife are frequently updated to reflect new or continuing developments, but most readers rarely sift through previous listings. No worries. Below are four important updates recently made… click on the link for the original post & scroll to the bottom to read the complete update.

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• Back in Feb 2009, there was controversy over the possible repatriation of the remains of Jorge Luis Borges. Stopped by his widow, María Kodama, Borges will not be joining his relatives in Recoleta Cemetery any time soon.

• The cemetery entrance remains a construction site six months after removal of the marble staircase in Aug 2009. The access ramp was quickly completed on the left side, but heritage organizations stopped any further work. Irreparable damage to the staircase has already occurred, so why keep the entrance in such a horrible condition?

• Marcelo has made a lot of progress in uncovering facts behind the death of Liliana Crociati de Szaszak. With 34 comments to date, it is the most popular post of this blog & has generated the most controversy. Added to the original post are 1970 newspaper clippings which report the avalanche & consequent rescue mission.

• We’re still waiting to hear from Congressman Roy Cortina for an update about the possible transfer of General José de San Martín proposed in Aug 2008. Stay tuned…