Daily Archives: January 7, 2011

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. Continue reading →