Belgrano is usually exempted from Buenos Aires sightseeing tours because of its distance from downtown. However, this charming and residential neighborhood has many hidden areas that should be visited.

CABILDO AVENUE AND SURROUNDING AREAS

It is the quintessential commercial corridor of Belgrano. From Federico Lacroze to Monroe, there are almost twenty blocks of continued stores of clothing, lingerie, shoe stores, bookstores, home appliances, bargains, perfumeries, banks and more. Between Jose Hernandez and Echeverría you can see the most beautiful and sophisticated shops. It pays to shop around for the traditional gallery Belgrano –between La Pampa and Sucre- which still keeps the air of neighborhood. “La Casa del Angel” -Sucre between Cuba and Arcos, three blocks of Cabildo, deserves a special visit for being a little mall outdoors that concentrates the most elegant tour of the area. For bargains and opportunities you should enter the area between Juramento and Monroe.

This neighborhood was funded more than a century and a half ago as a holiday retreat for the wealthiest families of the city

Las Barrancas

It is Belgrano’s green area, within La Pampa, Sucre, Echeverría, 11 de Septiembre and Juramento streets, it is a beautiful area sorrounded by irregular landscape, stairs, tall and leafy trees, brick lanes, elegant gold lanterns, assorted statues and a famous bandstand where people gather to dance tango at weekends. The park was designed in 1892 by the famous architect Carlos Thays and, to some extent, it still keeps its original spirit. The area has a hidden jewel, even for its own neighbors: a reduced copy of the Statute of Liberty made by the Fréderic Bartholdi, author of the huge statute in New York bay.

CHINATOWN

Covering a few blocks on Arribeños Street (between Juramento and Blanco Encalada), Belgrano Chinatown holds a busy commercial activity and concentrates the highest number of Asian shops of the whole town. This area started to develop in the early 90s and has been consolidating as the mecca of chefs and gourmet individuals who visit the supermarkets in search of exotic flavors, spices, fruit, fish, tea and other hard-to-find delicacies. Colorful, popular and particularly busy on weekends, these blocks are worth visiting to eat in some of its restaurants or stalls and wander through the stores. Two key facts: one, credit cards are not accepted in most stores; and two, most stores are closed on Mondays.

* TIP: The photograph under the entrance arc located in Arribeños and Juramento, next to Belgrano C train station, is a must.

ENRIQUE LARRETA SPANISH ART MUSEUM

Precisely on Juramento 2291 (also opposite Manuel Belgrano square), the museum is located in a Neocolonial house that used to belong to Enrique Larreta, Argentine writer and collector. Inside, it holds an art gallery with works from the Middle Ages until the beginning of the 20th Century. However, the most beautiful area is the Spanish-style garden which is worth a visit with its lovely fountains, sculptures, exotic trees and labyrinth-like paths. You should also visit the museum restaurant, Croque Madame, offering tables in the open and a direct access to the garden.

La Redonda

An undisputed icon of the neighborhood and one of the most peculiar temples in Buenos Aires, the Inmaculada Concepción Parish was built by the architects Nicolás Canale and Juan Antonio Buschiazzo. Known as La Redonda de Belgrano (The Circle of Belgrano) due to its circular floor, the construction is crowned by a twenty-meter diameter and a forty-meter high dome which provides a huge visual power. It is located in Juramento and Vuelta de Obligado, opposite Manuel Belgrano square next to a market with a café and an ice-cream store with tables in the open. Nearby you will find lots of cafés and excellent ice-cream shops, chocolate shops, bookstores and decoration shops.

Belgrano R

Between the tracks of Mitre railway, Forest, Elcano and Melián, there is a sub-neighborhood with an Anglosaxon flavor, with leafy trees, huge mansions and stone pavement and quiet streets. It is an area known as Belgrano R (because it is located on the train route going to Rosario, province of Santa Fe); it is an elegant location in every block, with its center in Plaza Castelli, surrounded by beautiful cafés. Belgrano R is particularly attractive in fall, and is the piece that turns Belgrano into a neighborhood which is almost complete.

El Bajo

El Bajo Belgrano or Belgrano Chico (which is, essentially, the area going from Libertador Avenue to the River) used to be a forgotten factory area which, in the last decades - thanks to the real estate boom- was embellished and became a nice neighborhood, with good connections and surrounded by large parks. Moreover, on the corner of Sucre and Figueroa Alcorta there is also a small but interesting restaurant area, with the legendary Sucre, run by one of the most famous Argentine chefs, Fernando Trocca (Sucre 676).

El Solar de la Abadía

Known among the neighbors as simply “el Solar”, it is a small but sophisticated mall (with around eighty stores) opposite San Benito Abbey, in an area which is becoming a fashionable spot like Las Cañitas. Located between Luis María Campos, Gorostiaga, Maure and Arce streets, el Solar opened in 1995 on a land that used to be a dry ice factory. As a result of this recycling, the architects won a Maxi Award ‘97 for the most innovative design.

Embassy Neighborhood

In an area with undefined boundaries (but delimited by Virrey del Pino, Arcos, Maure and Luis María Campos streets) there are still a good number of mansions, many of them converted into embassies or private schools. This architectonic beauty is an ideal area for a morning walk, among high trees and stone pavement streets.