| When Buenos Aires was still just a small cluster of | | | | of the 19th century French landscaping artist Charles |
| buildings on the Rio de la Plata, a group of Franciscan | | | | Thay, it has also remained green - a series of parks |
| monks, known as the Padres Recoletos, established a | | | | and plazas parallel Recoleta's wide avenues and |
| chapel and retreat in an area of the countryside north | | | | grace its belle-époque buildings with shady tree |
| of the city. The Recoleta sanctuary marked the high | | | | limbs. The neighborhood is arranged according to a |
| ground of the RÃo de la Plata valley, which was | | | | gradient, with the most expensive real estate in the |
| why, in the second part of the 19th century - with | | | | area immediately bordering Avenida del Libertador. |
| crowded living conditions and stagnant water in San | | | | The residential blocks surrounding Avenida Santa Fe, |
| Telmo giving rise to a series of plagues - Buenos | | | | meanwhile, while still firmly upper-middle class, lack the |
| Aires' richer citizens decided to flee their former barrio | | | | former area's ostentatiousness and forebodingness. |
| and move there instead. | | | | For a quick glimpse of the most ornate luxury environs |
| Recoleta, to this day, is Buenos Aires' most elite | | | | in Argentina - typical of Avenida del Libertador posh - |
| neighborhood, and, thanks in large parts to the efforts | | | | take a walk down Avenida Alvear. |