Santo Domingo

Defensa 422
Tel. 4331-4202 - Extension 228
Mondays from 9 a.m. to 12:30 a.m.,
and from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 12 :30 a.m.
Does not close on holidays

The cornerstone of this temple was laid in 1751, and in 1779 the Jesuit architects Antonio Masella and Francisco Álvarez finished the building. When the English troops invaded Buenos Aires for the second time in 1807, the temple of Santo Domingo became one of the main bulwarks of resistance. There are still traces of this memorable action on the left tower, which was the only one existing at the time, since the right tower was erected in 1856. During Rivadavia's government, the Dominican fathers were forced to leave the country, and the temple was used as a Museum of Natural History, whilst an astronomical observatory was set up in the top part of the building. The atrium holds the remains of General Manuel Belgrano in an artistic marble mausoleum made by the sculptor Héctor Ximen. In the Closet of the Virgin of the Rosary there are four flags that Viceroy Liniers seized from the English, and two trophies obtained by General Belgrano during his Northern Campaign against the Royalist troops. This temple was raised to the status of a Minor Basilica by a bull passed by Pope Pius X in August 1909, and was declared a Historical Monument in 1942.