The story
Welcome to the heart of Retiro. You are standing in what many consider to be the most beautiful square in Buenos Aires, a place where the city’s aristocratic past, its military honors, and its architectural triumphs converge. As you look around, you’ll notice the dramatic slope of the land.
This is the barranca, one of the few places where you can still feel the original topography of the city before it was leveled and extended into the river. In the 1700s, this area was the city’s edge, used as a slave market and later a bullring. But the spirit of the plaza changed forever in 1812 when General José de San Martín, the liberator of Argentina, established his barracks right here to train the legendary Mounted Grenadiers.
Take a moment to look up at the bronze monument of San Martín on his horse. He is pointing toward the Andes, the mountain range he famously crossed to secure independence for the southern cone of the continent. Surrounding this greenery are some of the most impressive buildings in South America.
If you look toward the north side of the plaza, you’ll see the Palacio Paz, once the largest private residence in the city, modeled after the Louvre. Nearby stands the Kavanagh Building, a towering Art Deco masterpiece. When it was completed in 1936, it was the tallest reinforced concrete structure in the world.
Legend says it was built by a wealthy woman to block the view of a church belonging to a rival family who had forbidden their son from marrying her. As you walk down the slope toward the busy street below, the mood shifts. You will encounter the Cenotaph for the Fallen in the Malvinas War.
This black marble wall, engraved with the names of the soldiers who died in 1982, is guarded by two soldiers and marked by an eternal flame. It is a place of deep national mourning and quiet reflection amidst the city’s roar. Just across the street stands the Torre Monumental, often called the Big Ben of Buenos Aires.
This red-brick clock tower was a gift from the British community to Argentina for the 1910 centennial. Originally called the Torre de los Ingleses, its name was changed following the conflict in the eighties. Its architecture is purely British Renaissance, and the materials—the bricks, the stone, and the clock mechanism itself—were all shipped here from England.
Today, it stands as a sentinel over the Retiro train station, its chimes echoing the complex, layered history of a city that has always looked across the ocean for inspiration while fiercely guarding its own soil. Take a breath, listen to the bells, and enjoy the elegant breeze of the Paris of the South.