Barrio Norte () is the informal name given to a part of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

centering on

Santa Fe Avenue Avenida Santa Fe is one of the principal thoroughfares in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The artery is essential to the imaginary axis of Barrio Norte, Buenos Aires, Barrio Norte in Buenos Aires, comprising the areas influenced by the route of the aven ...

and the district of Recoleta.

Characteristics

To the east, the area forms a certain architectural unit that resembles it to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, a feature that is progressively lost towards the west, bordering

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

, where modern apartment buildings predominate. Barrio Norte is characterized by its opulence, great cultural life, its architecture, its palaces, residences, museums and large parks.

Overview

An unofficial neighborhood, Barrio Norte is roughly equivalent to the Recoleta district, though it generally refers to the portion south of Las Heras Avenue. Barrio Norte also includes northern parts of the

Balvanera Balvanera is a Barrios of Buenos Aires, barrio or neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Origin of name and alternative names The official name, Balvanera, is the name of the ''parroquia'' (parish) centered around the church of ''Nuestra Seño ...

district, eastern parts of

and the portion of Retiro west of the Nueve de Julio Avenue. Its population exceeds 200,000. The name (which stems from the area's location relative to the city center) took hold when people began relocating to the area from the

San Telmo San Telmo ("Saint Pedro González Telmo") is the oldest ''Barrios of Buenos Aires, barrio'' (neighborhood) of Buenos Aires, Argentina. A well-preserved area of the Argentine metropolis, it hosts some of its oldest buildings. One of the birthplace ...

and

Montserrat Montserrat ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, wit ...

districts following the 1871 yellow fever epidemic. An area of comfortable rowhouses during the early 20th century, it became a focus of highrise apartment development as early as the 1930s. Santa Fe Avenue became the preferred venue for upscale shopping in Buenos Aires during the 1950s and '60s, and the profile of the area surrounding it grew in popularity among the emerging Argentine upper middle class, particularly after the 1961 demolition of the National Pentitentiary for the creation of the 8-hectare (20 acre) Las Heras Park. Real estate agents started touting "Barrio Norte" as a distinguishing feature in their advertising, expanding its reach into

and Old Palermo. Recoleta Avenida Santa Fe y Callao esquina NE

With the advent of popular indoor

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

s in the 1980s, Santa Fe lost some of its allure, especially with theater-goers, even though it remains a very active commercial thoroughfare. It is also served by Line D of the subte (subway) and a large number of bus lines. The area around the corner of Santa Fe and Salguero is sometimes known as ''Villa Freud'' due to the large number of psychologist offices in the area (with a significant proportion of practitioners of the Freud and Lacan variants of

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...

). Since the advent of

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

in 1983, Santa Fe has been the preferred street for gay pick-up, even though no part of it has morphed into a distinctly

gay village A gay village, also known as a gayborhood or gaybourhood, is a geographical area with generally recognized boundaries that is inhabited or frequented by many lesbian, gay, bisexuality, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people. Gay vil ...

. The area has seen hundreds of '' belle époque'' apartment buildings demolished to make way to modern high-rises, particularly since 1990. This had led to the creation of numerous societies devoted to their protection; thanks in part to their efforts, a number of exemplary buildings from the era have been refurbished, instead. José Hernández wrote his poem ''El gaucho Martín Fierro'' while living in an inn located in the area.

References

Barrio Norte, Buenos Aires, Argentina
{{Coord, 34, 35, 30, S, 58, 24, 04, W, region:AR_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki, display=title Unofficial neighborhoods of Buenos Aires