Landmark Buenos Aires, Argentina
Cats in Recoleta Cemetery
The grandest cemetery in South America, with Evita in it, once had a colony of more than sixty cats that stole the show. Six are left, fed at five every morning by the florist outside the gate. This page tells you that before you go.
Where to find cats in Recoleta Cemetery: The Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, at the top of Jun铆n street, beside the Pilar church and the Recoleta cultural centre. When: Early, when the gate opens. The cats are fed at five and are out in the first cool hours. March to May, September to November. Why here: A famous cat colony that has almost gone, in a cemetery worth the visit anyway, and an honest account of both.
The short version
- Where
- The Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, at the top of Jun铆n street, beside the Pilar church and the Recoleta cultural centre
- When
- Early, when the gate opens. The cats are fed at five and are out in the first cool hours. March to May, September to November
- How long
- Two hours for the cemetery. Ten minutes for the cats, if you find them
- What it costs
- Foreign visitors pay an entry fee at the gate. The florist鈥檚 tin for the cats is voluntary and more important
- Why here
- A famous cat colony that has almost gone, in a cemetery worth the visit anyway, and an honest account of both
What to bring
- The opening hourThe cats are fed before the gates open and retreat as the tour groups arrive. The first hour is your only real chance.
- Pesos for the floristPisani, the florist by the gate, has fed the cats every morning for years at his own cost, in a country with 200 percent inflation. He takes donations.
- Six namesLili, Princesa, Llorona, Lucio, Cabez贸n and Grisecito. That is the whole colony now. Learn them and you might meet one.
- Shoes for marbleThe lanes between the mausoleums are marble and tile, and the cemetery is a small city of them.
Why there are cats everywhere
For decades the cats of Recoleta upstaged Evita. Now there are six.
The Recoleta Cemetery is a walled town of the Argentine dead: presidents, generals, writers and the rich, in mausoleums of marble, bronze and art nouveau glass, laid out in lanes you can get lost in. Eva Per贸n is in the Duarte family vault, and finding her is what most people come for. For most of the last fifty years, though, the thing visitors actually photographed was the cats.
There were more than sixty at the height of it, living among the tombs, sunbathing on the marble, following visitors down the lanes, and fed by a rota of caretakers and a florist from the stalls outside. They had a documentary made about them in 2016. They were, for a while, the most famous cemetery cats in the world.
Then the thinking about animal welfare changed, as it has everywhere on this list, and the cats were neutered, rehomed, and, as they aged, not replaced. By 2024 the colony was six: Lili, Princesa, Llorona, Lucio, Cabez贸n and Grisecito. Pisani, the florist, comes at five every morning to feed them, and in an economy with inflation at two hundred percent he does it on what visitors put in his tin.
The page is here because people still search for the Recoleta cats, and every other page still promises them. The honest version is that you may not see one, that the six who remain are old and looked after, and that the man who feeds them could use your money more than your photograph.
The walk
From the plaza to the gate, in through the lanes to Evita, and back out past the florists. An hour and a half, most of it lost among the tombs, which is the point.
- From The centreBus 17, 60, 67 or 110 to Recoleta, or a taxi20 minEvery taxi driver knows the cemetery. Ask for Recoleta, cementerio.
- From PalermoWalk down Avenida del Libertador30 minFlat, along the parks. The way to arrive if you have the morning.
- From The airportBus or taxi50 minEzeiza is a long way out. Aeroparque, the city airport, is fifteen minutes up Libertador.
Plaza Intendente Alvear
The park below the cemetery, with the weekend craft market and the enormous rubber tree. Neighbourhood cats here too, fed by the park. Walk up to the church.
The approach. The walls of the cemetery, and the city beyond them.David Berkowitz from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0 The Pilar church and the flower stalls
The white colonial church beside the cemetery gate, and the florists outside it. This is where Pisani works. If you want to help the cats, this is the tin.
One of the six, if you are lucky and early.Jose Luis1972, CC BY-SA 4.0 The gate and the lanes
Ticket at the gate, then in. The lanes are a grid that stops being one. Take the map, ignore it, and look at the mausoleums: art nouveau, neo-gothic, marble angels, a whole century of money.
On the marble, early. This is where they were.Jose Luis1972, CC BY-SA 4.0 Evita
The Duarte vault, plain and black, in a side lane, with flowers on it every day. Everyone finds it eventually. The cats used to sit on the step. Look around before you leave; they may still be nearby.
The lanes near the Duarte vault.David Berkowitz from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0
Same numbers as the list. Worth keeping open on your phone.
The cats you will meet
Six, at the last count, all elderly, all neutered, all fed daily. The rest of a colony of more than sixty were rehomed or died as the cemetery鈥檚 attitude to them changed. If you see one it will be in the early morning, near the gate end, and it will be one of the six.
The six
Old, calm, well fed, and slow to get up.
Lili, Princesa, Llorona, Lucio, Cabez贸n, Grisecito. Ask Pisani which you have met.
The plaza cats
Outside the walls, in the park.
Neighbourhood cats, not cemetery cats. Also fed, also fine.
The absent sixty
In the photographs on every other page.
Rehomed, mostly. This page is the correction.
Everybody says Recoleta Cemetery is full of cats.
Actually It was, and most pages still say so. The colony was neutered and rehomed as thinking about animal welfare changed, and six old cats remain, fed by a florist at his own expense. Go for the cemetery, which is extraordinary, and treat a cat as a bonus.
How not to be the annoying one
- Give to Pisani鈥檚 tin at the flower stalls, not food to the cats. He feeds them at five and has done for years.
- It is a cemetery, and people are visiting graves. Quiet in the lanes, and off the steps of the vaults.
- Do not go looking under the mausoleums for a cat. They are old, they are hiding on purpose, and the vaults are fragile.
- Take the photograph if one comes to you. Do not spend the visit hunting one; the cemetery is the thing.
