Old and New Buenos Aires

During the week a handful of craftspeople and a few scruffy pigeons are the only ones enjoying the shade from the stately trees in the city's second-oldest square. Sunday couldn't be more different: scores of stalls selling antiques, curios, and just plain old stuff move in to form the Feria de San Pedro Telmo (San Pedro Telmo Fair). Tango dancers take to the cobbles, as do hundreds of shoppers (mostly tourists) browsing the tango memorabilia, antique silver, brass, crystal, and Argentine curios. Note that prices are high at stalls on the square and astronomical in the shops surrounding it, and vendors are immune to bargaining. More affordable offerings—mostly handicrafts and local artists' work—are on stalls along nearby streets like Defensa.

Be on the lookout for antique (or just plain old) glass soda siphons that once adorned every bar top in Buenos Aires. Classic colors are green and turquoise.

Be sure to look up as you wander Plaza Dorrego, as the surrounding architecture provides an overview of the influences—Spanish colonial, French classical, and ornate Italian masonry—that shaped the city in the 19th and 20th centuries.

All 500 years of Buenos Aires' history are packed into this unusual house. The street it's on was once a small river—the zanjón, or gorge, of the property's name—where the first, unsuccessful attempt to found Buenos Aires took place in 1536. When the property's current owner—or custodian, as he prefers to be known—decided to develop what was then a run-down conventillo, he began to discover all sorts of things beneath the house: pottery and cutlery, the foundations of past constructions, and a 500-foot network of tunnels that has taken over 20 years to excavate. These were once used to channel water, but like the street itself, they were sealed after San Telmo's yellow-fever outbreaks. With the help of historians and architects, they've now been painstakingly restored, and the entire site has been transformed into a private museum, where the only exhibit is the redbrick building itself. Excellent hour-long guided tours in English and Spanish take you through low-lighted sections of the tunnels. The history lesson then continues aboveground, where you can see the surviving wall of a construction from 1740, the 19th-century mansion built around it, and traces of the conventillo it became. Expect few visitors and plenty of atmosphere on weekdays; cheaper, shorter tours on Sunday draw far more people. If you want to spend even more time here, you can rent the whole place (including an adjacent building reached via the tunnels) for functions.

Address: Defensa 755
Phone: 11/4361–3002
Admission: Guided tours 40 pesos (1 hr, weekdays only); 25 pesos (30 min, Sun.)
Hours: Tours weekdays 11–3 on the hr; Sun. 1–6 every 15 min. Closed Sat.

As you head north along the Costanera Sur, to your left are Puerto Madero’s skyscrapers, and to your right is a stretch of water separating Puerto Madero proper from the Reserva Ecológica. (The ecological reserve’s entrance is through the trees behind Fuente Las Nereidas; a detour here will add gorgeous greenery and lots of extra mileage to your walk.)

This a small park, and ends at one of Puerto Madero’s former docks, now home to Buenos Aires’ newest buildings (and newest construction sites). The original redbrick warehouses over the water now house restaurants and offices.

Tango dancers inspired the sweeping asymmetrical lines of Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava's design for the pedestrian-only Bridge of the Woman. Puerto Madero's street names pay homage to famous Argentine women, hence the bridge's name. (Ironically its most visible part—a soaring 128-foot arm—represents the man of a couple in mid-tango.) The $6 million structure was made in Spain and paid for by local businessmen Alberto L. González, one of the brains behind Puerto Madero's redevelopment; he also built the Hilton Hotel here. Twenty engines rotate the bridge to allow ships to pass through.

Argentina’s richest woman, Amalia Fortabat, is a cement heiress, so it’s not surprising that the building containing her private art collection is made mostly of concrete. It was completed in 2003, but after-effects from Argentina’s 2001–02 financial crisis delayed its opening until 2008. Amalita (as she’s known locally) was closely involved in the design, and the personal touch continues into the collection, which includes several portraits of her—including a prized Warhol—and many works by her granddaughter, Amalia Amoedo. In general, more money than taste seems to have gone into the project: the highlights are lesser works by big names both local (Berni, Xul Solar, Pettoruti) and international (Brueghel, Dalí, Picasso), hung with little aplomb or explanation in a huge basement gallery that echoes like a high-school gym. The side gallery given over to Carlos Alonso’s and Juan Carlos Castagnino’s figurative work is a step in the right direction, however. So are the luminous paintings by Soldi in the glass-walled upper gallery. They’re rivaled, however, by the view over the docks below—time your visit to end at sunset when pinks and oranges light the redbrick buildings opposite. Views from the dockside café come a close second.

Address: Olga Cossettini 141
Phone: 11/4310–6666
Admission: 15 pesos
Hours: Tues.–Fri. noon–9, weekends 10–9