Buenos Aires: Ricoleta cemetery

Ricoleta cemetery is a historic cemetery situated in the Buenos Aires suburb of Ricoleta. It houses a veritable "who's who" of famous Argentinian families, including military figures, academics, politicians (such as Eva Péron) and other notable people.

The family vaults are enormous and it is difficult to show the scale of these amazing pieces of architecture in photos.

One of the original vaults from the 1840's

The church from the cemetery

One of the "streets"

Alter in the church

The reason for these huge vaults was that prominent people didn't want to be buried in the "public" cemetery - so they built their own private spaces.

The cemetery is an interesting few hours walk, if only to see the incredible architecture of the vaults - although it is a little eerie seeing the coffins on full display...