The center of Buenos Aires, also referred to as the micro-center, is quite busy during working hours with people coming in and out of the many government offices and shopping stores in the neighborhood. On nights and weekends many shops and restaurants close and the area becomes significantly quieter.

El Centro is home to some of the major sights in Buenos Aires, sights that are symbols of Argentina. Visit each one of the highlights mentioned below, and enjoy all the shopping Buenos Aires has to offer.

The area referred to as El Centro is really broken up into a number of separate neighborhoods. These include Montserrat, San Nicolas, Retiro and Puerto Madero.

HIGHLIGHTS

Plaza de Mayo:
The pretty plaza has played a fundamental role in almost all the important political and social events in Argentina's history. Every Thursday at 3:30pm, a group of women called the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo walk around the plaza demanding a full accounting of the many deaths in Argentina Dirty War.

A number of famous building face the plaza such as the Casa Rosada, the Metropolitan Cathedral, and the Cabildo(the old town counsel).

Casa Rosada:
The rosy palace(Casa Rosada) is the official presidential residence and government headquarters. The first-floor balcony on the building's northern wing is used by the country's leaders to speak to the enormous crowds that gather below.

Catedral Metropolitana:
Also looking at the Plaza de Mayo, the Metropolitan Cathedral is famous for a marble mausoleum holds the remains of General Jose de San Martin, who was Argentina's greatest independence hero.

The Congress Building:
El Congresso is quite impressive. Finished in 1906 in an Italian academic style with some classical touches, the building is a four-storied rectangle and has two pavilions, one on each side. In front of the Congreso Congress building is another beautiful park. The park features the sculpture "Le Penseur" by August Rodin, along with a fountain sculpture "Monument of the two Congresses", an allegory that represents the Andes Mountains with the main rivers of the plains: Parana, Uruguay, and Rio de La Plata flowing into a large pool below.

El Obelisco:
The Obelisk is a memorial monument that has historical facts related to the Argentine history engraved on each of its four faces. The phallic structure is right at the crossing of two major avenues, Av. 9 de Julio and Av. Corrientes, and is without doubt, the characteristic symbol of Buenos Aires. Recently, it has become a tradition for the Obelisk to be the place where most demonstrations in Buenos Aires start and eventually going to Casa Rosada.

Teatro Colon:
The Colon Theater in Buenos Aires is considered one of the four most important opera houses in the world for its acoustics and infrastructure. It is a magnificent building, in Italian Renaissance style, with a capacity of 2500 spectators, and there are few major ballet, opera or concert shows that do not visit the theatre.
Cerrito 618 / Website
There are guided tours all year long and performances from March to November.

Cafe Tortoni:
The cafe is one if the oldest and most prestigious in Buenos Aires. Argentina's best poets and thinker often met with their peers that had fled from the Spanish Civil War in the beginning of the century. Playwrights like Benavente and Garcia Lorca, philosophers like Ortega y Gasset made Tortoni their "home". The Cafe had its own jazz cellar, pool room as well as a tango program.
Av. De Mayo 829

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes:
The National Museum contains approximately 11,000 paintings, sculptures, tapestries, engravings, drawings and various objects.
Av. del Libertador 1473
Phone: 4803-0802 / Website

Museo de Arte Hispanoamericano Isaac Fernandez Blanco:
Built as the residence of the architect Martin Noel in the late 18th century in an eclectic post-Spanish colonial style, it's now home to the Isaac Fernandez Blanco Hispanic-American Art Museum. The extensive collection of colonial silver, wood carvings, and paintings gives you a sense of the wealth and the quality of craftsmanship in colonial South America. The overgrown, almost jungle-like garden provides an awesome background for the outdoor theatrical performances mounted here during the summer.