This website uses cookies to ensure that you have the best possible experience when visiting the website. View our privacy policy for more information about this. To accept the use of non-essential cookies, please click "Got It"
Status: Historical Cemetery
By <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/158619309@N03">Deensel</a> - <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/deensel/41054043562/">La Recoleta Cemetery</a>, CC BY 2.0, Link
By <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/34073237@N04">Christian Haugen</a> - <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Flickr" class="mw-redirect" title="Flickr">Flickr</a>: <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/34073237@N04/3675786869">La Recoleta Cemetery entrance</a>, CC BY 2.0, Link
History
This cemetery is built around a Franciscan Recollect convent and Our Lady Pilar Church built in 1732.
When the Franciscan Order disbanded in 1822 the garden of the convent was changed into the cemetery. It was originally – in 1822 – laid out by a French Civil Engineer but the final changes to the cemetery’s design were made in 1881 by the city’s mayor and an Italian architect.
The cemetery covers 5.5 hectares (14 acres) with over 6,000 tombs; all above ground. Most of Argentina’s famous and legendary are buried here including: Eva Peron, Carlos Pellegrini, Jose Hernandez, Miguel Cane and Zully Moreno.
Most of the tombs are well taken care but there are also many in disrepair and otherwise damaged including some with the caskets now visible.
It is considered one the most beautiful cemeteries in the world.
The cemetery is closed and locked at night.
Paranormal Activity
The most famous ghost is that of Rufina Cambaceres who was found dead on her 19th birthday by her parents. Heavy rains delayed her burial and when the groundskeeper came back, he found her coffin lid had been disturbed and there were scratch marks on the inside of the lid. This happened in 1902 when mistakes were made and people were buried alive due to some diseases, conditions and insect stings.
Rufina is now seen eternally wandering the cemetery in a terrible condition trapped between life and death.
The phantom sound of keys jangling is said to be David Alleno, a grave digger who worked many years in the cemetery. He killed himself within the grounds; rumour has it he did it right after his own tomb was completed.
There are a few stories of attractive 20 something men meeting very attractive young women just outside of the cemetery grounds or within. This may be one ghost or many but she/they are said to be very charismatic, charming and funny. Some men have actually had a meal with her but eventually she will lead them all into the cemetery where she will suddenly turn a corner and disappear into thin air.
Other Activity: over 200 different apparitions – and that’s being conservative – have been reported in the cemetery; shadow figures; movement in the corner of your eye; unexplained mists and winds; cold spots; touches, tugs and pulls from unseen presences; light anomalies; feelings of unease, bliss and comfort, disembodied voices, unexplained sounds and feelings of being watched and not being alone.
And, of course, every year there are always a few who claim to see the ghost of Eva Peron herself.
Status: Former Maximum Security Prison; 4 Museums
Par <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Gast%C3%B3n_Cuello&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="User:Gastón Cuello (page does not exist)">Gastón Cuello</a> — <span class="int-own-work" lang="fr">Travail personnel</span>, CC BY-SA 4.0, Lien
Par <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Beaudroit&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="User:Beaudroit (page does not exist)">Beaudroit</a> — <span class="int-own-work" lang="fr">Travail personnel</span>, CC BY-SA 4.0, Lien
Par <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Gast%C3%B3n_Cuello&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="User:Gastón Cuello (page does not exist)">Gastón Cuello</a> — <span class="int-own-work" lang="fr">Travail personnel</span>, CC BY-SA 4.0, Lien
History
Despite the desolation and extreme weather of this location the initial prisoners were moved here in 1902 from even worse prisons - on smaller islands - for humanitarian reasons. This prison was for the worst of the worst, repeat offenders and select political prisoners.
Only one person ever escaped from this facility and he had help from the inside.
The first prisoners lived in the first of what would eventually become 5 pavilions out from the centre in a half star shape. Each pavilion was 2 storeys high with 4 metre square (43 square feet) cells on both sides and both floors.
The prison held 540 prisoners; went the population exceeded that the stables were converted into cells. Another 40 to 50 prisoners could be held in each stable.
About 250 prison guards were employed to guard the prisoners.
The prisoners were given primary education in such trades as shoe making, printing or blacksmithing. If an inmate was especially good, he was allowed to leave the prison and do logging in the nearby national park.
On March 21, 1947 the prison was closed by the National Director of Penal Institutions under the orders of President Juan Domingo Peron (yes, the husband to Eva Peron) for humanitarian reasons. The inmates were transferred to prisons in continental Argentina and the property was transferred to the Argentine Navy.
In 1994 the Ushuaian Civil Association asked for the navy to transfer the care of the site to them. They opened the first 2 museums that year 1) a maritime museum and 2) a museum focused on the history of the city.
In 1996 two more museums were opened on the property: one Argentine marine art and another one celebrating Argentina’s exploration of Antarctica.
The history of the prison itself is also covered at the site.
Paranormal Activity
This location is considered one of the most haunted and paranormally active places on the planet.
Paranormal activity is much higher in the areas of the former prison that are not used by the museums. Access to these places is near impossible unless you have special permission or a friend in the Argentine Navy.
An energy of malevolence and pervading evil is the most commonly described effect of the haunting. The absolute worst of Argentine society were imprisoned her including mass murderers, child molesters and rapists so it stands to reason that something of their auras would remain.
Reported Paranormal Activity on site: apparitions of former prisoners and guards – some of which have acted violent and antagonistic toward the living; physical attacks on the living including scratches, feeling hands around your neck and shoves; pushes, tugs and pulls by unseen entities; objects moving on their own; unexplained noises including loud bangs, knocks and scratches; shadow figures some of which have acted antagonistically toward the living; disembodied voices; phantom screams, cries, breathing and laughter; empathic sensations of anger, fear and violence; hot and cold spots; unexplained breezes; light anomalies; time slips; physical illness including headaches and nausea and feelings of not being alone, being watched and not being wanted.