Tender to install a gift shop at a Recoleta Cemetery vault sparks rejection

Buenos Aires City lawmakers and organizations are protesting the local government’s proposal to install a gift shop inside a currently abandoned vault at the historic Recoleta Cemetery. The shop will also be able to sell food and beverages. The Recoleta Cemetery is the first public cemetery built in Buenos Aires. Over 90 of its 4500 vaults and mausoleums are national historic monuments due to their architectural and artistic value. The cemetery is also part of the historic protected area of the Recoleta neighborhood, one of the most popular among those visiting BA. The cemetery is the resting place of some of Argentina’s most prominent historic figures and has become a mandatory stop for all tourists visiting the national capital. The tomb of First Lady Eva Perón is the most visited one.  Presidents Bartolomé Mitre, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and Raúl Alfonsín are among those resting in the cemetery, along with several national heroes and cultural figures. Now, the city government has launched a public tender aimed at granting a commercial permit for a gift shop to operate inside the cemetery for five years. Gifts, coffee and food A communiqué from the BA government said that the gift shop will sell institutional items, publications, graphic works, and commemorative or touristical items “related exclusively to the cultural identity and heritage of the area.” The BA City government denied that it will be a coffee shop. However, a technical document published alongside the tender on Monday states that, as part of the provision of “integral services” for visitors, the gift shop will operate as “a resting and support area for visitors” and sell “food, beverages, and tourism-related products that are not produced on site.” The provision of food and beverages includes infusions such as coffee and tea, “exclusively destined to be consumed outside the shop, without table service or permanence of customers inside the shop, and without the use of reusable cutlery.” The city’s communiqué added the shop will operate under the “takeaway” modality for immediate pickup or simple preparations, and that installing tables and chairs for eating and drinking is banned inside the cemetery. The details of the tender The call for the public tender was released on Monday, and the process to take offers will be carried out online on September 9. The firm that wins the tender will be allowed to carry out commercial activities for five years with an initial rent of AR$1.6 million (US$1056). “Like other cities around the world, the City put out a call for bids to establish a gift shop at the Recoleta Cemetery, joining the trend of expanding cultural offerings and services, as seen in cemeteries in Vienna, Dublin, Berlin, and London,” BA said in their communiqué. According to the local government, the measure is part of “a comprehensive project to highlight the cultural and historical heritage of the Recoleta Cemetery, and aims to diversify the range of services offered to visitors and generate revenue for the maintenance of the grounds.” The shop will be placed in a 24-square-meter vault. Given it was abandoned, control over the vault was “handed back” to the Buenos Aires City government through an administrative operation. Since the shop will be within a protected area, no structural modifications can be made to the vault and all changes made to it must be reversible, made with the proper materials, and with patrimonial authorization. The BA government also announced that the cemetery will soon offer night visits from 7 to 11 p.m. — it is currently open until 5 p.m. The visits will be exclusive to groups doing authorized guided tours. The gift shop will have to pay 20% of the income generated during those hours. Rejection While the authorities said the vault was empty, according to journalist Gabriel Levinas, it still housed caskets of members of the Girado family up until Tuesday, when he said they were removed. Hours before that, he said he had visited the vault and taken pictures of the caskets. The Herald asked whether the caskets had been removed and their final destination but did not receive a reply from the BA City government at time of publication. Mientras la ley de la ciudad prohíbe toda actividad comercial dentro de los cementerios, el GCBA licita un gift shop con bebidas adentro de una bóveda en Recoleta. Artículo 22, ley4977. ¿En qué quedamos? @jorgemacri pic.twitter.com/uFGTgoWmO1— Gabriel Levinas (@GabyLevinas) August 12, 2026 Many social media users expressed shock at the possibility of a shop being installed in the middle of the cemetery.  City lawmakers from the Unión Cívica Radical party Guillermo Suarez and Manuela Thourte filed a proposal for the BA City Legislature to declare its concern regarding how the local government wants to create revenue to maintain the cemetery “by transforming a vault into a place of commercial exploitation.” The Recoleta Cemetery, they said, “is a place of burial and mourning,” as well as “a reservoir of the country’s historical, political, social, scientific and cultural memory.” They added that laws dedicated to protect and preserve historical heritage not only refer to the physical structure, but that, in a cemetery, “they must also include protecting the meaning of the physical space, its traditional uses and the respect that the buried people, their families and those who visit the place for mourning deserve.” The Association of Friends of the Recoleta Cemetery (ADACRE, by its Spanish initials) said they supported the idea of potentially installing a “cultural outreach and information center” in the abandoned vault, but stated that it did not consider gastronomic activity “adequate.” “We believe that this currently vacant space has a natural purpose: heritage interpretation, exhibitions, and the publication and sale of institutional materials related to the cemetery’s historical, social, and artistic identity,” ADACRE said. “This use would make the most of a space that is currently available, without compromising the character of the site.” They added that they consider installing a shop in the vault would go against the law regulating cemeteries in Buenos Aires City, which bans any type of commercial activities inside them, as well as the cultural heritage protection included in a law that regulates museums, monuments and historic sites. Organization Basta de Demoler, which protests the demolition of historic buildings in the city, also expressed its “stern and absolute rejection” of the prospect of food and beverages being sold inside the cemetery. “This proposal is not only inappropriate but also clearly abhorrent,” the organization said, adding that it “directly violates the nature of a place that is, above all, a cemetery and a national historic monument since 1946, where the remains of national heroes and remarkable figures of our nation rest.” “The cemetery is a place of reflection, memory and respect for those resting there. It is neither a shopping trip nor a nightlife attraction,” they stated.