City of the Dead – Cementario de la Recoleta, Buenos Aires

Cementario de la Recoleta in Buenos Aires is as close as I’ve ever seen a cemetery meet the description of “City of the Dead” .  The cemetery includes wide, paved streets and narrow alleyways bordered by mausoleums that often look like miniature houses .  Here and there are green spaces punctuated by monuments and statues .  The first image below looks down one of the wide avenues .  Occasionally, one of the tombs includes interesting and sometimes frightening artwork, such as the skull seen on the tomb of the Family of Doctor Alexo Castex .  Unfortunately, I was not able to learn much about Doctor Castex, which frustrates me as a genealogist!  Finally, the tomb of Martin Rodriguez (1771-1845) shows a sculpture of this Argentine politician and soldier who participated in the resistance to the British Invasion of the Rí­o de la Plata during the Napoleonic Wars and the subsequent May Revolution .  Rodriguez later became governor of Buenos Aires.

City of the Dead

SOURCE:  City of the Dead (Buenos Aires, Argentina), photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 31 Dec 2010.

Skull on the Tomb of Doctor Alexo Castex

SOURCE:  Skull on the Tomb of Doctor Alexo Castex (Buenos Aires, Argentina), photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 31 Dec 2010.

Plaque on the Tomb of Doctor Alexo Castex

SOURCE: Â Plaque on the Tomb of Doctor Alexo Castex (Buenos Aires, Argentina), photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 31 Dec 2010.

Tomb of Martin Rodriguez (1771-1845)

SOURCE: Â Tomb of Martin Rodriguez (1771-1845) (Buenos Aires, Argentina), photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 31 Dec 2010.

Copyright © 2011 by Stephen J. Danko