Avenida de Mayo
The boulevard that predates Madrid's Gran Vía by 16 years, built to make Buenos Aires feel like Paris.
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A 1.5 km corridor of Art Nouveau, neoclassical, and eclectic facades running from Plaza de Mayo to Congressional Plaza, shaped by Mayor Cané's strict 24-meter height limits. The Barolo Tower was the first building granted an exception. Beneath the avenue, the metro line opened in 1913 was the first outside the US or Europe — a record that still holds.
What to look for
- The Barolo Tower rising above neighboring rooflines — the first building allowed to exceed the avenue's 24-meter height cap
- The gap in the streetscape where one full block was cleared in 1937 to cut through Avenida 9 de Julio, now the world's widest street
- The layered facades of Art Nouveau, neoclassical, and eclectic styles, each subject to the zoning rules Mayor Cané enacted when the avenue was built
Walk the 1.5 km west to east — from Congressional Plaza to Plaza de Mayo — in about 20 minutes; the avenue merges into Rivadavia Avenue at the far (eastern) end.
Avenida de Mayo is one of 34 sights worth the detour in Buenos Aires, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Buenos Aires pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Buenos Aires
- Mas Monumental Stadium85,018 seats on reclaimed Río de la Plata marshland — the largest stadium in South America, and the ground where a World Cup Final was played.
- La BomboneraThat chocolate-box shape doesn't just look strange — the unusual design gives the bowl its famously excellent acoustics.
- Casa RosadaThe baby-pink paint was a political recipe: mix the Federalists' red with the Unitarians' white, and maybe stop a civil war.
- Teatro ColónAcoustics expert Leo Beranek surveyed leading international opera and orchestra directors and ranked this hall the world's best room for opera — not a slogan, a measured result.
- Oscar and Juan Gálvez Race TrackF1 cars once screamed through the third corner here at 305 km/h, flat out for 40 straight seconds — and the grandstands put you right on top of it.
- Palacio BaroloA 1923 tower mapped floor by floor onto Dante's Divine Comedy — hell at the base, purgatory in the middle, heaven at the top.