Complejo Museográfico

On the west side of Avenida Nuestra Señora de Luján, immediately north of the basilica, the former Cabildo (colonial town council, 1797) and the Casa del Virrey (1803) house one of the country’s finest museum complexes—the Complejo Museográfico Enrique Udaondo. No viceroy every lived in Luján, by the way, but the Marqués de Sobremonte once spent a few hours in the house.

Porteño architect Martín S. Noël’s 1918 restoration of the Cabildo took some liberties with the building’s original unadorned facade and a few other features. Still, the three hectares of buildings and well-kept grounds, bounded by Calles Lezica y Torrezuri, Lavalle, San Martín, and Parque Ameghino, are distinguished for their contents as well.

Within the Cabildo and the Casa del Virrey, the Museo Histórico has a vividly thorough display on Argentine history, with a dazzling assortment of maps, portraits, and artifacts (such as caudillo Facundo Quiroga’s blood-stained vicuña poncho) that bring history alive. The museum box office, at the corner of Avenida Nuestra Señora de Luján and Lavalle, has a salon for special exhibits such as a remarkable display of crucifixes throughout the ages.

Immediately to the north, the Museo de Transporte houses an extraordinary collection of horse carriages in mint condition, including hearses, a carriage that belonged to General Bartolomé Mitre, and the stuffed carcasses of Gato and Mancha, the hardy criollo horses that A. F. Tschiffely rode from Buenos Aires to Washington, D.C. in the 1930s. There is also a Dornier seaplane cobuilt by Spaniards and Argentines, and the country’s first-ever locomotive, from the Ferrocarril Oeste. The upstairs of the main showroom is devoted to an elaborate exhibit on mate and its ritual, from colonial times to the present.

The Complejo Museográfico (tel. 02323/420245, Thurs. and Fri. noon–5:30 p.m., weekends 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.) charges US$.35 admission, paid at the corner of Avenida Nuestra Señora de Luján and Lavalle; admission is good for all its facilities.