2 Best Sights in Buenos Aires, Argentina

This basilica beside the famous Cementerio de la Recoleta is where Buenos Aires' elite families hold weddings and other ceremonies. Built by the Recoleto friars in 1732, it is a national treasure for its six German baroque–style altars. The central one is overlaid with Peruvian engraved silver; another, sent by Spain's King Carlos III, contains relics. The basilica's cloisters house the Museo de los Claustros del Pilar, a small museum that displays religious artifacts as well as pictures and photographs documenting Recoleta's evolution. There are excellent views of the cemetery from upstairs windows.

The columned neoclassical facade of the Metropolitan Cathedral makes it seem more like a temple than a church, and its history follows the pattern of many structures in the Plaza de Mayo area. The first of six buildings on this site was a 16th-century adobe ranch house; the current structure dates from 1822, but has been added to several times.

There's been a surge of interest in the building since February 2013, when Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, then archbishop of Buenos Aires, was elected Pope Francis. The sanctuary now includes a small commemorative display of the pope's personal objects, watched over by a grinning life-size fiberglass statue of the pontiff in full regalia.

The embalmed remains of another local hero, General José de San Martín—known as the Liberator of Argentina for his role in the War of Independence—rest here in a marble mausoleum lighted by an eternal flame. Soldiers of the Grenadier Regiment, an elite troop created and trained by San Martín in 1811, permanently guard the tomb. Guided tours (in Spanish) of the mausoleum and crypt leave Monday to Saturday at 11:45 am.