If you visit Buenos Aires, you are bound to observe countless images of Eva Peron – the much-loved Evita. They’re everywhere – from local restaurants to living rooms. Hence, Evitas Grave in Recoleta Cemetery is a popular one to visit on the gringo trail in South America.
She was pretty famous in the 1950’s because she was the extremely popular wife of then President Juan Peron – actually, more popular than the president himself. This was because she had a reputation of helping out the poor people of Argentina, and probably because she was immortalised by dying young, at the age of only 33, from cervical cancer.
I thought this was a good enough reason to visit her (much-understated) grave in Recoleta Cemetery. If you can tear yourself away from the world’s best steak, and copious amounts of great wine, it’s worth having a look!
Check out a previous post of the funny grave stone where death imitates life!
The Recoleta Cemetery even outshines many Italian-styled graves in Australia. It possesses marble Roman-style columns, marble angels, and countless crucifixes.
Hence, I expected Evitas Grave to be flooded with flowers from worshippers, Princess Diana style, but there was nothing – maybe the Argentinean economy was really that bad.
Evitas Grave in Buenos Aires – Security Central!
Her body is placed in her family’s mausoleum, Familia Duarte, a common Latino tradition of ensuring only the best Italian marble is used to construct the after-life residence.
I found out her body wasn’t above-ground like most of the other bodies, but buried under several protective layers of steel plates and concrete, preventing entry from obsessive Evita souvenir hunters. I’m not sure why you would want to exhume a corpse, but hey, whatever makes your day!
But there is a reason why her grave has security features that resemble Fort Knox.
This body snatching happened before, as her body was stolen by anti-Peronistas in the 1950s and hidden overseas in Europe until 1971. In 1974, her remains returned to Argentina for burial in the presidential crypt, but were eventually transferred beneath the steel lasagne grave at the Duarte family’s tomb at Recoleta.
So if you’re tempted, don’t bother trying to steal her unless you have a large vat of acid, or a rather large angle grinder!
See more at Evita: The Real Life of Eva Peron.
Don’t Cry For Me Argentina, see:
- Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina – a great place to chill your six pack of beer
- The Best Buses In The World
- Evitas Grave in Buenos Aires, Argentina – An Interesting Mausoleum
- Iguazu Falls in Argentina and Brazil – How To Wet Yourself
- Boca Juniors Stadium – A First Hand Experience of South American Football: La Apertura
- Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires, Argentina – Funny Grave Site and Head Stone
- Argentina Wine Tours – Pickle Your Liver at Mendoza, Argentina
- Falkland Islands War Memorial in Buenos Aires – The Ultimate in Irony
- See Beaver Dams – In South America
- Best Steak In The World: Don’t Cry For Meat… Argentina…
- Global Financial Crisis – If you thought US Banks had an image problem..