Buenos Aires Plaza Lavalle And Surroundings

Just west of Avenida 9 de Julio lies the beautiful Plaza Lavalle, a three-block long park dotted with trees. With so many fewer tourists than the Plaza de Mayo, it’s a great place to relax. At its southern end stands the imposing Neoclassical Supreme Court building, or Justicia, with which the Plaza is often associated.

Sinagoga Central De La Congregación Israelita De La República Argentina. The center of Judaism in Argentina, this synagogue is also one of the country’s oldest and most active. The beautiful carved facade gives way to an even more stunning sanctuary, decorated with gilt detailing, stained glass windows, and brasswork. There’s also a museum, with a small but high-quality collection of artifacts, as well as photos and records of Argentina’s Jewish community. Unless you come for a service, the only way to visit the building is with a guided tour. Security is very, very strict, so be prepared to show your passport and answer questions about your background and reasons for visiting. The synagogue also distributes a kosher map of Buenos Aires. (Libertad 785. S Tribunales. ☎4123 0102. Guided English- and Spanish-language tours Tu and Th 3-5:30pm; call ahead for tours in German, French, or Hebrew. AR$15.)

Teatro Colón. The country’s main performance center, Teatro Colón occupies a beautiful, seven-story Italian Renaissance building at the eastern end of Plaza Lavalle. Since it opened in 1908, it has been one of the world’s major venues for opera, ballet, and classical music, and many of the “greats” have performed here, including Callas, Nijinsky, and Rubinstein. Highlights of the interior include the entrance hall, adorned in marble and stucco and capped off with a dome, and the magnificent mirrored and gilded Salón Dorado (Golden Hall), a venue used for small concerts and lectures that closely resembles the halls of Versailles in France. The traditional horseshoe-shaped auditorium, with a capacity of nearly 3000 and world-renowned acoustics, has three tiers of seats rising to a domed ceiling complete with an enormous bronze chandelier that surely makes spectators below somewhat nervous. The dome itself, decorated with frescoes of dancers and musicians, was painted by Argentine artist Raúl Soldi. The theater was closed in 2006 for renovations with a planned reopening on May 25, 2008 to celebrate the opera house’s centennial with a performance of Verdi’s Aïda, the first production that was staged there. However, construction delays have pushed back the reopening to sometime in 2010. At that time, the theater will resume its guided backstage tours, which visit the costume and set workshops as well as the rehearsal and dressing rooms. (Libertad 621. S Tribunales. ☎4378 7344; www.teatrocolon.org.ar. See for box office information.)

Obelisco. Technically called the Obelisco de Buenos Aires, this obelisk sits in the Plaza de la República at the intersection of Avenida Corrientes, the mammoth Avenida 9 de Julio, and Roque Saenz Peña. Erected in 1936 in honor of the city’s 400th anniversary, and to mark the spot where the Argentine flag was first flown, the monument was quickly weighted with political baggage. Its initial construction was pushed through in 31 days to forestall the building of a monument meant to honor the populist Hipólito Yrigoyen —like many of Argentina’s other famous figures, he was commemorated with a nearby street name instead. In the 1970s, at the beginning of the Dirty War, a giant sign urging drivers to cut down on the use of horns gave a mal á propos warning, “el silencio es salud” (“silence is health”). Apparently, the military dictatorship did not realize that the sign also carried a negative connotation of censorship. The obelisk is also the center of many celebrations in the city, including rallies following wins for the Argentine national soccer team. Despite these moments, though, it seems pretty clear what the long white column represents. Shortly after the monument was built, feminist groups called for it to be chopped in half, saying they found the masculine symbol oppressive. In 2005, the entire shaft was wreathed in a giant pink condom in honor of World AIDS Day. (S 9 de Julio, Carlos Pellegrini, or Diagonal Norte.)