Palermo is the favorite Buenos Aires barrio for travelers, famed for its grand family of neighborhoods, its glorious parks, striking monuments, many tourist attractions, great shopping, excellent restaurants, stylish accommodation and a frenetic nightlife.
Palermo Buenos Aires>more is the largest barrio in the northeast of Capital Federal (Buenos Aires City). To the north of Palermo is Belgrano, a fantastic neighborhood favored by the Argentine middle classes; to the northwest are Colegiales and Chacarita, probably the next two barrios to gentrify, with Villa Crespo to the west and Almagro and Recoleta to the South. Palermo’s eastern border is the Rio del la Plata, Buenos Aires River of Silver.
Palermo is close to being a perfect city tourist haven. Only a lack of subte and buses in some areas and its northerly geography sometimes persuade travelers to stay closer to the centre in barrios such as Recoleta.
We referred to Palermo as having a grand family of neighborhoods, because realtors subdivide Buenos Aires’ largest barrio into four main Palermo neighborhoods without boundaries – realtor-speak really:
•Alto Palermo is downtown Palermo, with the main shopping area, Santa Fe and mall. Villa Freud, nearby, is based around Plaza Güemes and is a residential area known for its high concentration of psychoanalysts and psychiatrists
•Palermo Viejo or old Palermo is home to low-rise Spanish style architecture. It is divided by a train track, to the north is Palermo Hollywood, so named for its links to TV and radio and Palermo Soho in the south, so named for its city village vibe much like London or Manhattan Sohos – we give more Palermo Viejo information on our main websites.
•Palermo Chico (Small or exclusive Palermo) is the most up market part of Palermo, which borders Recoleta. The Buenos Aires Museum of Decorative Arts is located in Palermo Chico in a dazzling old palatial home. Neighboring Barrio Parque residential area designed with quaint winding streets by Carlos Thays. Many of the wealthy and famous own homes in Palermo Chico and Barrio Parque.
•Las Canitas is a small but thriving part of Palermo, so named after the crops of cane that once grew there. It is a former slum given a great makeover and although approximately six blocks square at the north end of Palermo, it is fast becoming a favorite of the young middle classes. Las Cañitas warrants its own section on our main website.
Palermo gets its name from the Franciscan abbey of Saint Benedict of Palermo. In the late 1800’s it was the weekend ‘property’ of Juan Manuel de Rosas, a tyrannical dictator.
Some say that Juan Domingo Palermo, an Italian immigrant bought the land in the late 16th century, shortly after the foundation of Buenos Aires in 1580 and named the area Palermo.
Rosas is the first dominant political figure in Buenos Aires, a federalist, although generally considered a dictator. He ruled the Buenos Aires province from 1829 to 1852 while acting as a caretaker of the Independent United Provinces of the Rio del la Plata, tasked with managing political relations and trade with the outside world.
Rosas seemed more concerned with establishing his own dominance in Buenos Aires than with any principled federalism. He developed a paramilitary force of his own, the La Mazorca (the Corncob), which earned the federalists the derogatory nickname of mazorqueros. There preferred title, The Holy Federation. This feared militia was also nicknamed más horca (more gallows), which is a homophone of La Mazorca in Spanish.
The wonderful green spaces once Rosas fiefdom are now home to the Bosques de Palermo, the Zoo, Planetarium, the Palermo hippodrome, the botanical gardens and Plaza Italia. Please see our list of Palermo Buenos Aires attractions and our history of Buenos Aires for more detailed information.
Informational resources:
DIY Buenos Aires walking tours Recoleta to Palermo Soho
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