Avenida Santa Fe - Overview

Overview

Santa Fe Avenue officially begins on the southern end of Plaza San Martín and the northern end of pedestrian Florida Street. The avenue affords a view of the Art Deco Kavanagh building and Plaza Hotel (officially on Florida St.) and passes by the former Haedo and Paz palaces (today public buildings) before leaving the plaza's leafy surroundings. It continues westward along the Retiro area, passing by the Olivetti building (built in 1964, one the first in Buenos Aires designed in the International Style) and through the massive Avenida 9 de Julio, which was opened through the Retiro area in the early 1970s. The Greek Revivalist Argentine Scientific Society and the Art Deco Regina Theatre follow and, past Avenida Callao, Santa Fe Avenue enters its Recoleta stretch. This stretch of the upscale thoroughfare is considered one of the main shopping districts in the city.

Just past Callao Avenue, the former Grand Splendid Theatre was converted in 2000 into the El Ateneo Bookstore, the most important in Latin America. Past Pueyrredón Avenue, Line of the Buenos Aires Metro was laid out underneath Santa Fe in the 1920s. The availability of frequent subway stations past this point has helped maintain the more residential setting of the remaining stretches of the avenue. Past Coronel Díaz Avenue, the avenue provides easy access to the Alto Palermo Shopping Centre, one of the most important in Buenos Aires. Entering the Palermo district, it continues past the Buenos Aires Zoo, the Botanical Garden and Plaza Italia, a point overlooked by the Monument to the "Sword of Italy," Giuseppe Garibaldi. The avenue continues past the Argentine Rural Society's ornate exposition grounds and into a tunnel, where it becomes Cabildo Avenue.