Belgrano

North of Palermo, leafy Belgrano is largely residential, apart from the lively shopping streets on either side of its main artery, Avenida Cabildo. Named after General Manuel Belgrano, hero of Argentina’s struggle for independence, it was founded as a separate town in 1855. Over the next decade or two lots of wealthy Porteños built their summer or weekend homes here, and it was incorporated into Buenos Aires during the city’s whirlwind expansion in the 1880s. Many Anglo-Argentines settled in the barrio in those years, and it became popular with the city’s sizeable Jewish community in the 1950s. More recently Taiwanese and Korean immigrants have settled in Barrio Chino, Buenos Aires’ small Chinatown, which stretches along Arribeños between Juramento and Olazába.

Belgrano C is the central part of the barrio, whose nucleus lies at the junction of avenidas Cabildo and Justamento. As well as stores, cafés and galleries, there’s a clutch of minor museums here, with the most impressive being the Museo de Arte Español at Juramento 2291. This well-restored, whitewashed colonial building is home to a priceless collection of Spanish art amassed by an aristocratic Uruguayan exile, Enrique Larreta. From around 1900 to 1916, the dandyish Larreta spent many of his days in Spain; during that time he visited churches and monasteries, buying up artwork for his Belgrano home, most of them from the Renaissance – statues and paintings of saints, but also furniture, porcelain, silverware and tapestries, all of which are displayed in this house, which he bequeathed to the city.

Juramento station, one stop before the end of subte Line D, is a block from the museum, while plenty of buses run along Avenida Cabildo.