Museo Histórico Nacional

Museo Histórico Nacional Review

What better place for the National History Museum than overlooking the spot where the city was supposedly founded? The beautiful chestnut-and-white Italianate mansion that houses the museum once belonged to entrepreneur and horticulturalist Gregorio Lezama. It became a quarantine station when cholera and yellow-fever epidemics raged in San Telmo, before opening as this museum in 1897. At this writing, most of the museum is closed for some much-needed renovations, so be sure to check ahead of visiting.

Parque Lezama. The Museo Histórico Nacional (National History Museum) sits in the shade of enormous magnolia, palm, cedar, and elm trees on the sloping hillside of Parque Lezama. Bronze statues of Greek heroes, stone urns, and an imposing fountain shipped from Paris hint at former glory. Patchy grass, cracked paths, and unpainted benches are a nod to more recent times. A monument in the northwestern corner celebrates conquistador Pedro de Mendoza, said to have founded Buenos Aires on this spot. Watching over the park are the onion-shaped domes of the Catedral Santísima Trinidad Iglesia Ortodoxa Rusa (Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church) immortalized by Argentine writer Ernesto Sabato in his novel Sobre Heroes y Tumbas (Of Heroes and Tombs). Defensa at Brasil, Barracas.