60 Fun Facts About Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of which country?

The city proper holds about 3.1 million people, but the urban area swells to 16.7 million, the 21st most populous metropolitan area on Earth.

The city sits on the southwestern shore of which estuary, often described as the world's widest river?

Puerto Madero, the ecological reserve, the airport and the port were all built on land reclaimed from its muddy waters.

Residents of Buenos Aires are commonly known by what nickname, which literally means 'port-city person'?

The same word is used in Valparaíso, Montevideo, Acapulco and other port cities, but abroad it is almost always taken to mean someone from Buenos Aires.

'Buenos Aires' honours a Madonna venerated as patroness of which Mediterranean island?

The Madonna of Bonaria's church stands on a hill above Cagliari that Catalan settlers prized because it was free of the swampy old town's foul smell.

Who led the Spanish expedition that first founded the city on 2 February 1536?

His settlement stood in what is now San Telmo and lasted only a few years before attacks by indigenous people forced the settlers out.

From which present-day capital did Juan de Garay sail downriver to found Buenos Aires in 1580?

Garay came down the Paraná from Paraguay's capital and kept the name chosen for the first settlement, calling the town the City of the Most Holy Trinity and Port of Saint Mary of the Fair Winds.

Which navigator, sailing for Spain in 1516, first reached the Río de la Plata and was killed by the Charrúa?

His death in what is now Uruguay ended the expedition; Magellan would sail into the same estuary four years later.

Which foreign power briefly occupied Buenos Aires in 1806 and failed again in 1807?

An army from Montevideo under Santiago de Liniers retook the city, and the militias raised to repel the invaders shifted power toward the criollos who would soon push for independence.

The May Revolution that removed the last Spanish viceroy took place in which year?

Formal independence came six years later at the Congress of Tucumán, but the May date is the one Argentines celebrate as a national holiday.

In which year was Buenos Aires federalized as the seat of national government?

The settlement ended decades of conflict, and the city was enlarged in 1888 to swallow the towns of Belgrano and Flores, now ordinary neighbourhoods.

Since a 1994 amendment gave Buenos Aires autonomy, the city is commonly known by which four-letter abbreviation?

The letters stand for Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires; locals just as often call the city 'Capital' to distinguish it from the surrounding province.

Who won the city's first mayoral election in 1996 and was the nation's president from 1999 to 2001?

Until then the president had simply appointed the mayor; the office was renamed Head of Government under the new statutes.

The pink presidential palace facing the city's main historic square is known by what name?

One story says the colour blended Federalist red and Unitarian white to defuse politics; another says the original paint contained cow's blood to fight humidity.

Which president reportedly had the government house painted pink to blend the colours of two rival factions?

Sarmiento also added patios, gardens and wrought-iron grillwork and commissioned the Central Post Office next door in 1873.

The Obelisk of Buenos Aires was erected in 1936 to mark what anniversary?

The 67.5-metre concrete needle went up in a matter of weeks, and three years later the city council voted to demolish it, a decision the mayor vetoed.

How many days did the German contractors take to complete the Obelisk?

The 157 workers poured rapid-hardening cement in two-metre sections; inside, a straight staircase of 206 steps climbs to four small windows at the top.

Avenida 9 de Julio, generally called the widest avenue in the world, is named after what?

At 110 metres across, with up to seven lanes each way, it takes most pedestrians several traffic-light cycles to cross.

The Teatro Colón opened its current building in 1908 with which Verdi opera?

The site had been the Park Station, the country's first railway station; the building took 20 years to complete and reopened in 2010 after a four-year restoration.

Which architect gave Buenos Aires the Floralis Genérica, a giant steel flower that closes each night?

The 23-metre, eighteen-ton flower opens at 8 a.m. and shuts at sunset, glowing red inside; it stays open all night on four special dates including 25 May and New Year's Eve.

The brightly painted street museum called Caminito is found in which neighbourhood?

Painter Benito Quinquela Martín rescued the alley from being a landfill in the late 1950s, and it shares its name with a 1926 song by his friend Juan de Dios Filiberto.

Boca Juniors' stadium is nicknamed La Bombonera because of its resemblance to what?

Architect Viktor Sulčič reportedly kept bringing a birthday gift box of chocolates to project meetings because its shape matched the stadium plans.

The fiercest derby in Argentine football, the Superclásico, pits Boca Juniors against which club?

The Observer once listed watching the fixture among the 50 sporting things to do before you die; the city fields no fewer than 24 professional clubs.

Which team did hosts Argentina beat 3–1 in Buenos Aires to win the 1978 World Cup?

The city also hosted the first Pan American Games in 1951 and the inaugural basketball World Championship a year earlier.

Buenos Aires lost its bid to host the 1956 Summer Olympics by a single vote to which city?

The city bid again for 1968 and 2004 without success, but did host the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics.

Pato, declared the national game in 1953, is best described as a kind of what?

The name means 'duck', because early games used a live duck in a basket; polo, brought by English immigrants, is played across the avenue from the Palermo racetrack.

Which five-time F1 champion is celebrated in the Argentine city whose circuit staged 20 Grands Prix?

Only Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, with seven titles each, have surpassed his five championships.

The city's metro, opened in 1913, holds what distinction?

Line A kept its belle-époque stations and ran its original 1913 wooden cars, nicknamed Las Brujas, until 2013.

What is the local name for the city's more than 150 competing bus lines?

They run without fixed timetables, several times an hour, and rarely stop more than four blocks from a commuter's front door.

The city's main international airport, in the suburb of Ezeiza, is officially named after which person?

Jorge Newbery is the domestic airport on the riverbank in Palermo, the only one inside the city limits.

Which company runs the ferries from Buenos Aires to Colonia, Montevideo and Punta del Este?

More than 2.2 million people a year cross the estuary this way, and one of the fleet is a catamaran capable of about 80 km/h.

The city's distinctive taxis are painted in which two colours?

About 40,000 of them work the streets around the clock, alongside cheaper pre-booked cars called remises.

What is the local dialect of Spanish spoken in Buenos Aires called?

It is marked by voseo and yeísmo, and a phonetic study found its rhythm closer to Neapolitan than to any other language, a legacy of Italian immigration.

The porteño slang known as Lunfardo, now heard mostly in song lyrics, originated among which group?

One of its tricks, vesre, flips the syllables of a word; it borrows from Italian dialects, Brazilian Portuguese and even English.

How many barrios does Buenos Aires officially have, despite the song about 'one hundred'?

The song was popularized in the 1940s by singer Alberto Castillo; Palermo, the largest barrio, has since been split informally into Soho, Hollywood and more.

Which cardinal, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, was elected pope in 2013?

As Pope Francis he became the first pontiff from the Americas; his successor in the archdiocese was Mario Poli.

Which dance and music genre, emblem of Buenos Aires, was declared UNESCO intangible heritage in 2009?

The city calls itself the Tango World Capital and hosts an annual festival and world championship; Carlos Gardel is its most celebrated voice.

La Recoleta Cemetery is famous as the resting place of which Argentine first lady?

Its 4,691 above-ground vaults include presidents, Nobel laureates and the founder of the navy, and the BBC named it one of the world's best cemeteries in 2011.

The Buenos Aires Japanese Gardens were inaugurated in 1967 during a state visit by which royal couple?

They are the largest Japanese gardens outside Japan, sitting near Palermo's Parque Tres de Febrero, which was laid out by French landscaper Carlos Thays.

Which building, begun in 1919, was South America's tallest and had a beacon visible from Uruguay?

Its 300,000-candela lamp was restored to working order in 2009; the lobby is decorated with Latin phrases in golden bronze letters.

The 120-metre Kavanagh Building, opened in 1936, was the earliest building anywhere to have what?

Carrier supplied the air conditioning and Otis the 12 elevators; it remains an Art Deco landmark on Plaza San Martín.

Buenos Aires claims to have more of what per capita than any other major city in the world?

There are at least 734 of them, roughly 25 per 100,000 residents; UNESCO named the city World Book Capital for 2011.

With more than 280 of them, the city bills itself as the world capital of what?

On a typical weekend around 300 stages are lit, more than London, New York or Paris; the Gran Rex, from 1937, was once the continent's biggest cinema.

In 2005 Buenos Aires became the first place awarded which UNESCO Creative Cities title?

It was awarded again in 2007; separately, UNESCO made the city World Book Capital in 2011.

Which Buenos Aires square did a naval faction bomb in June 1955, killing 364 civilians?

The attack was aimed at toppling Juan Perón; a military uprising deposed him three months later.

The Buenos Aires snowfall of 9 July 2007 was the city's first major one in how many years?

It arrived during the country's coldest winter in nearly three decades; the city's record low of −6.1 °C dates back to 1886.

The Buenos Aires Underground is known locally by what short name?

It comes from 'subterráneo'; the network has six underground lines lettered A to E and H plus the Premetro light rail.

Buenos Aires, with its European-flavoured culture, is often nicknamed the 'Paris of' where?

The comparison dates from the immigration boom that ended around 1930, when the Colón became one of the world's top opera houses and the city built South America's first underground.

Which pope visited Buenos Aires in 1982 and 1987, drawing some of its largest ever crowds?

The 1982 visit came at the height of the Falklands War; democracy returned the following year.

Which French-Argentine landscape designer created the city's Botanical Gardens, opened in 1898?

Thays also designed the Zoological Gardens and Rose Garden and lived in an English-style mansion inside the Botanical Gardens.

Roughly how many parks and green spaces does Buenos Aires have?

The largest concentration is on the eastern side in Puerto Madero, Recoleta, Palermo and Belgrano.

Since which year has the population of Buenos Aires proper hovered around 3 million?

Low birth rates and migration to the suburbs kept the city flat while Greater Buenos Aires grew fivefold to about 13 million.

How many Nobel Prize winners has the University of Buenos Aires produced?

The city is also a major centre for psychoanalysis, particularly the Lacanian school.

Roughly how many bookshops does Buenos Aires have, about 25 per 100,000 inhabitants?

Its secondhand bookshops, ranked third per capita in the world, cluster along Avenida Corrientes.

Which influential literary magazine did Victoria Ocampo found in Buenos Aires in the 1930s?

It dominated Spanish-language literature for thirty years as the city became the language's literary capital.

UNESCO named Buenos Aires World Book Capital for which year?

Its International Book Fair, running since 1975, drew 1.8 million people in 2019.

How many professional football teams does Buenos Aires have, the highest concentration of any city?

Besides Boca and River they include San Lorenzo, Huracán, Vélez Sarsfield and Argentinos Juniors, where Maradona began.

Which international sporting event did Buenos Aires host for the first time anywhere, in 1951?

It had already hosted the first FIBA World Championship in 1950 and later the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics.

Argentina's first rugby union match in 1873 was played on the ground of a club for which sport?

The Galileo Galilei planetarium in Palermo now stands on the site; the north of the city has more than 80 rugby clubs.

Basketball arrived in Argentina in 1912 through the Buenos Aires branch of which organisation?

Canadian professor Paul Phillip taught the game at the YMCA on Paseo Colón Avenue.

How many years' compulsory schooling did Argentina's 2006 National Education Law set?

It restored the old primary-then-secondary system and made secondary education obligatory.