A neighbourhood and a cemetery

 

The Chacarita cemetery is eponymous to the neighborhood of Buenos Aires where it is situated. “Chacarita” derives from “Chacara” or “Chacra” in Quechua language meaning ‘farm’ or ‘barn’ pointing to the agricultural origins of the area.

Opened in 1871 by the municipality of Buenos Aires in an effort to face the pandemic of yellow fever, the Chacarita cemetery was originally outside of the city’s walls. Caught up by the rapid growth of the capital, it now occupies a central spot. With its 95 hectares it is the largest cemetery of Buenos Aires’ and Argentina, and one of the largest in the world. With about 80 visitors per day it is also where important Argentinian figures like tango legends Carlos Tango, Osvaldo Pugliese or Anibal Toso rest.

Since its creation, the spatial organization of the necropolis and its limits with the city have changed several times, ever adapting to the historical and socio-economical evolutions of the capital. Expanding since the end of the 19th century, the cemetery is now facing a shrinking phenomenon; whereby it is losing territory bit by bit to the city of the living.


vue-aerienne-Chacarita-sml.jpg

A mirror of the city

A true city within a city and a mirror of the latter, the cemetery of Chacarita reflects the different topologies of buildings present in Buenos Aires. Facing the main entrance, the marble mausoleum with rich decorum from the second half of the 20th century echos the bourgeois European influenced buildings of the Recoleta neighbourhood. In the geographical heart of the cemetery, the Sexto Panteon resonates with the huge urban plans of the second half of the 20th century. At its periphery, simple wooden crosses pointing to the graves’ location in a sea of freshly turned ground recalls the informal habitats of the shantytowns.

1886-Evolucion-barrio-cementerio.png

1886.

  1. Old location of the Chacarita Cemetery, today Parque de los Andes (1871-1886)

  2. Creation of the Tranvía Fúnebre : train destined to transport coffins to Av. Dorrego (1871-1886)

  3. Creation of Cementerio del Oeste”(Western Cemetery) , old name of the Chacarita Cemetery (1886)

  4. Creation of the “Cemetery of dissident protestants” (1892)

Evolucion-barrio-cementerio-1920.png

1920.

5. Construction of the City of Buenos Aires’s crematorium (1903)
6. Extension of the cemetery and construction of the Galería Perimetral (1913)
7. Separation of the protestant cemetery between the English Cemetery and the German Cemetery at the end of WWI (1918)
8. Construction of the tunnel Anexo 22 (1920)

AroHa_02.jpg

1949.

Official change of the name of the Chacarita Cemetery - previously Western Cemetery

1958.

9. Construction of the Panteón Integral (1948)
10. Construction of the chapel (1940)
11. Construction of tunnels 15 to 21 of the Panteón Subterráneo o Sexto Panteón (1958)

Chacarita-2019.jpg

2020.

12. Construction of Police and Firemen Panteones
13. Construction of Galería 24 (1980)
14. Demolition of the Galería Anexo 22 (2006) and Inauguration of Elcano parc (2017)
15. Demolition of the Galería Perimetral and of 10 hectares of the cemetery for the creation of the Garmendia parc (2012?)