If you thought you’d seen it all when it comes to themed cafes and hidden bars, we’re about to give you a big surprise because Buenos Aires might have a new cafe in the most unexpected place in the city: the Recoleta Cemetery.
That’s right. The City Government has just opened up a disused crypt at the Recoleta Cemetery for bidding as a dining space. That means that once the license is granted, the Buenos Aires Cemetery will have its first bar inside an actual crypt.
You and everyone else visiting the cemetery will be able to enjoy a coffee with a croissant or savor a taste of the city from a genuine 20th-century crypt converted into a dining space.
A Crypt Given New Life: What the Project Is All About
The crypt where the café could be located is situated just a few meters from the main entrance, in one of the cemetery’s interior galleries. It’s a crypt measuring about 24.5 square meters that doesn’t contain any remains and is completely empty and unused.
The City Government’s plan is to grant a five-year concession for this space to transform it into a multimedia and dining destination. The idea isn’t to set up a large-scale restaurant (there isn’t room for that), but rather a space more in the style of a souvenir shop or café that will also serve as the departure point for new guided night tours of the cemetery.
What will it be like to stroll through the marble corridors at sunset and end the tour with a café con leche surrounded by graves?
A global trend: from “necrotourism” to cafés among the graves
Although it may sound very strange, there are museums in several capitals around the world that already have bars inside cemeteries—and even, as will be the case in Buenos Aires, in spaces that were once crypts or tombs:
- Vienna (Austria): The Central Cemetery has its own boutique café, where you can sample traditional Austrian pastries after visiting the graves of Beethoven or Mozart.
- London (United Kingdom): Highgate Cemetery organizes cultural events and gatherings with tea service.
The Recoleta Cemetery is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the world, with its mausoleums originally designed on the site of the former orchard of the Recollect friars in 1822. It’s a place that definitely attracts a lot of people every day, and in fact, many locals bring their mate to drink while strolling through the cemetery’s aisles.
When will you be able to have a coffee in the crypt at Recoleta Cemetery?
The project to open a café in a crypt at the Recoleta Cemetery is currently in the public bidding phase. Once the space is awarded, the concessionaire must renovate the interior of the crypt while preserving its façade and heritage structure intact.
What do you think? How about a cup of coffee in the crypt?
