Basílica del Santísimo Sacramento

Basílica del Santísimo Sacramento

Basílica del Santísimo Sacramento
4.5
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The area
Address
Neighbourhood: Microcentro
How to get there
  • General San Martín • 4 min walk
  • Retiro • 6 min walk
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4.5
4.5 of 5 bubbles2,683 reviews
Excellent
1,814
Very good
755
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103
Poor
7
Terrible
4

Michael B
Bellflower, CA24,495 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2024 • Family
This basilica is a hidden Gem in the middle of the Corina Kavanagh side street between the Plaza Hotel and the Kavanagh Building Tower. It was once a private mausoleum built by Mercedes Castellanos de Anchorena, who lived across the nearby San Martin Plaza in a mansion now the Argentine Foreign Ministry.
The family were great supporters of the Roman Catholic church, and a basilica is an award given only by the Pope. It is one of the most richly ornamented churches in Buenos Aires, built in 1916, with Romanesque & Gothic elements and five towers. It was designed after the Cathedral in Angoulême, France; it has a French-made 5000 pipes organ and awesome stained-glass windows; there are 8 confessionals inside, all individually decorated with elaborate woodwork. The altar is magnificent. Also, the floor is covered with lots of unique coloured stones. It is dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament; the church belongs to the order of the Sacramentans founded by Saint Peter Julian Eymard and is now open to the public,

TIP: The crypt can be visited only on Friday from 9 to 3 p.m.
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Written 25 August 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Wesley C
Tucson, AZ10,285 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2022
Basilica del Santisimo Sacramento (Blessed Sacrament) is on a side street, so it's a little hard to find. Don't miss it! This ornate church is considered one of the most beautiful in Buenos Aires, which is an understatement. Built in 1916 by a wealthy female aristocrat (Mrs. Mercedes Castellanos de Anchorena), who said that if she lived in a palace, her God deserved one as well. The interior is an explosion of marble, stained glass, venetian tiles, blue granite, brass, silver and gold. It contains the largest pipe organ in Argentina (4800 pipes). It has 5 tall towers and the largest altar I've ever seen. Spectacular!!!! Open a limited number of hours so check the schedule on the website.
Written 23 January 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

shifra w
toronto4,651 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2020
I had come to Argentina with a Jewish tour group.
Besides many of the local landmarks in Buenos Aires, we also visited the site of the former Israeli Embassy, which had been destroyed by a bomb in 1992, and AMIA, which was bombed in 1994.
There are memorials in both places.
One of the members of our tour mentioned that she had read that there is also a memorial in the Basilica del Santisimo Sacramento, of documents that had been rescued from the bombings, and that she wanted to go see it.
I could not find any information about this on the internet, but our tour guide took us to this beautiful church and we did see the memorial, as well as the intricate mosaics and the ceremony of the changing of the guard.
Written 30 January 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

perthguy6
Perth, Australia202 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2020
As an avid traveller, if a Country has a changing of the guard I love to watch it and on the occasion of this stunning church I followed the Guards from the Presidential Pink Palace to the Tomb of San Martin which is inside the Church. I dont know of many guards that watch over a tomb in a church so I think that is quite unique. Beautiful church and lots to look at but try to time it for changing of the guard as well!
Written 2 February 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Gottagocit
Tennessee1,868 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2020
What a quiet peaceful and beautiful place in the middle on the chaos of the city. Wonderful carvings again glass windows are everywhere. There are several gorgeous chapels along the sides of the main hall. Definitely a must see when visiting Buenos Aires.
Written 15 February 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Trek-Always
Alpharetta, GA2,522 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2015 • Couples
This is a nice, small, basilica, but not a major attraction in the overall scheme of Buenos Aires.

There is a lot of confusion among Trip Advisor reviews between this basilica, Catedral Metropolitana, and San Pedro Gonzalez Telmo Church. The Catedral Metropolitana is in the Plaza de Mayo which you will likely visit anyway, and the Greek Revival exterior is different from the other churches close by including this one. Even some of the photos shown are not of this basilica.

The foundation stone was placed in March 1908. In November of 1916 Pope Benedict XV established this it as a Minor Basilica. It has some interesting history but is much smaller than the Catedral Metropolitana.

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Written 27 February 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Gabriela_Kubota
Aracaju, Sergipe, Brazil289 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
June 2014 • Couples
The Basilica del Santisimo Sacramento is located near Plaza San Martin. It´s a little bit hidden from viewers and passers-by, so you need to take passage Kavanagh in the back of Kavanagh building. THere´s an interesting love story behind this church and the Kavanagh building, which explains why the church appears to be hidden by Kavanagh building.

WARNING: most tourists have been posting and dropping comments on Buenos Aires Cathedral which is next to Plaza de Mayo, and nowhere near Retiro!!! So the address associated with this church is wrong as well. Also, THIS IS NOT THE CHURCH WHERE POPE FRANCIS USED TO WORK! IN FACT, WHEN HE WAS BUENOS AIRES BISHOP, HE´D WORK AT CATEDRAL METROPOLITANA NEXT TO PLAZA DE MAYO!!

PS: CHECK THE PHOTOS I´VE UPLOADED TO SEE THE CORRECT PICTURES.
Written 28 June 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Vincent M
New Orleans, LA2,256 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2020
Early one evening, I noticed an interesting-looking church on a side street. I wandered over to see its facade, but a wedding was taking place, and the church was still open. The ceremony limited my ability to explore, but what a stunningly beautiful church: both overall, and in detail. (Note: I’m not Catholic, so if I say anything incorrect, my apologies in advance; I approach Basilica Santisimo Sacramento as you might approach a Sikh gurdwara or a Shinto jinja, strictly from a cultural and architectural perspective).

Creation: Doña Mercedes Castellanos de Anchorena, having spent years in France, and inspired by her favourite Parisian church (I suspect Sainte-Chapelle), wanted to build something similar in Buenos Aires. She covered 100% of the cost of this church: a very wealthy señora indeed! The church, based on a Parisian design, was consecrated in 1916 (a great year to be as far from France as you could get), and was promptly declared a minor basilica by the Pope. This church merits that honour. “Minor” is not pejorative; four ancient Roman churches are the only major basilicas: period. It doesn’t matter if Brunelleschi designed your dome, Giotto built your bell-tower, and Ghiberti did the doors: if you’re not one of those four churches, the best you can ever get is minor.

Facade: The basilica’s facade is tall, narrow, and hemmed in by surrounding buildings all around, so you’re forced to look up at it from close by, rather than across a plaza or other open space, where you could get a better perspective. The style is Beaux-Art, with a heavy emphasis on neoclassicism. The arrangement of decorative arches on the facade is clever: in some places, a single arch is visually “supported” by two pillars. In others, two arches side-by-side are “supported” by only three pillars, the central one doing double-duty. Or, try four arches supported by seven pillars: the two-arch/three-pillar design but with a large third arch supported by two pillars right beside the outer double-arch pillars. And then a fourth arch over the third one, supported by two more pillars bracketing the third arch’s. And finally, at ground level, we get a trio of real arches and pillars, one before each door into the church. The bottom three arches actually do the work of an arch, supporting weight; the others are purely decorative. And back at top centre, within one arch high above them all: a remarkable marble sculpture of two kneeling angels worshipping the host: a stern padre is holding up an elaborate golden monstrance with rays radiating out from the host in its centre. A monstrance is a decorative objet d’art which displays the sacred host: the wafer used for Holy Communion; a monstrance with rays projecting out of it, as you see on the church facade, is called a solar monstrance. Right! So walk into the church and stare straight ahead at the fabulously beautiful altar, and what do you see smack dab in the middle of it? A real golden solar monstrance, the spitting image of the one on the facade! All this is sublimely appropriate, since the church’s name is Santisimo Sacramento: “the most holy sacrament” aka Eucharist (the other six sacraments, from baptism to extreme unction, including the matrimony those Porteños were celebrating, are santo, but not santisimo; see Facade and Monstrance photos).

Interior: what you immediately notice is how light it is, thanks to all those windows (see Interior photo). That photo also gives a hint of the transept, off to the left. The nave is bright and cheerful; the aisles on either side of the nave are set off by pillars; (see Nave photo). The light beige ceiling above the nave is a rib vault (see Rib Vault photo). The elegant “second-story” galleries immediately above the aisles (called the triforium) are vaulted as well, and separated from the nave by an arcade with bright arches resting on shining black pillars. Above the triforium, the outside walls close in on the nave, so the stained glass windows at this topmost level (called the clerestory) get plenty of sunlight, another factor in the airy, bright nature of the interior. The clerestory windows continue to provide natural light throughout the nave, wrap around the transept, and then light up the ambulatory and apse (See Triforium and Clerestory photo).

The apse (the front of the church from the transept to the altar) is stunning: the stained glass is breathtaking; the altar is made of beautifully-sculpted marble of various colors, particularly white Carrera marble, the same stone that Michelangelo used for David, Moses, and the Medici Chapel. The apse also has beautiful frescos (see Apse photo). I had a telephoto lens, but I do wish I could have gotten closer. Unfortunately, the only circumstance where it’s proper to interrupt a wedding by running up to the altar, is if you’re the decent chap who really loves the bride, and you’ve just obtained proof that the groom who’s only after her fortune, is still legally married to a woman up in Bogota; I didn’t fit that description.

However, even way back at the stern of the SS Santisimo Sacramento, I could confirm the quality of the materials used, thanks to the side chapels (see Side Chapel photo) and the ornate craftsmanship on the wooden pulpit and confessionals, which were somewhat within line-of-sight (see Pulpit and Confessionals photos). Something as simple as the holy water font was elaborately carved and constructed from four—count ‘em—four different types of marble (see Font photo).

Saintology: A close inspection of the stained glass windows here may introduce you to quite a few saints you’ve never heard of before. Several were brand new to me, though they might be famed throughout both Spain and Latin America. For example, one window honorus St. Hermengild, an early 6th century Iberian Visigoth prince who rebelled against his father the king. He lost the war first, and his head second. Saints have associated sacred symbols (Patrick-shamrock, George-dragon, Augustine-tedious books) and Hermengild’s is a headsman’s axe: on the stained-glass window, there’s one axe in the main portrait of the saint, and another down below in a smaller vignette of his actual beheading (see Hermengild photo).

Pipes: The church’s pipe organ is a monster: French-built, with 4983 “sound tubes.” Thanks to the wedding, I got to hear the organ: it’s impressive. If you’re Catholic, I’d recommend going to Mass on some special occasion when they’re sure to be playing the organ, such as Saint Hermengild Day.

p.s. 1: One morbid reflection: you know, given what this church is made of, and when it was built, it struck me that the same Catholic Italian freighter crews that carried beautiful Carrera marble to Buenos Aires for this basilica, may have loaded up with deadly munitions to take back to Italy, for use against Catholic Austrians on the Isonzo Front. Argentina was wise to stay out of that cataclysm.

p.s. 2: After writing the above, I scanned other TA reviews. Apparently this church is a popular tour stop (I can see why). Some reviewers state that this is a cathedral, where the current Pope Francis presided, and where José de San Martin’s tomb is located. It’s a minor basilica, not a cathedral. Pope Francis might very well have had some connection with Santisima Sacramento at some point in his career, but once he became archbishop of Buenos Aires, his official seat would have been the Metropolitan Cathedral. José de San Martin’s tomb is in the Cathedral, not here, though it’s squirrelled away even there, for theological reasons. (Francisco Pizarro’s is proudly displayed in Lima’s cathedral, but Pizarro was never a Freemason.)
Written 8 March 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Gustavo M
Buenos Aires, Argentina158 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2019
This church is particular, very well decorated with catholic representations and in the basement there are another temple with the same dimentions. Was build with money coming for an importante rich family.
Written 7 October 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Betty P
San Miguel de Tucuman, Argentina2,494 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2017 • Solo
Located a few meters from Plaza San Martín, hidden behind the Kavanagh Building, which has a sad explanation. The Basilica was built by the Anchorena Family (owner of the Anchorena Palace, now Palacio San Martín, where the Foreign Ministry of our country operates). Unfortunately, due to misunderstandings between the son of the aforementioned family and the daughter of Corina Kavanagh, the latter ordered the construction of the Kavanagh Building, attached to the church in order to cover the vision of the Anchorenas, who considered the Basilica an annex of their property.

One of the most traditional churches in Buenos Aires. White marble, onyx, Venetian mosaics and the best available materials of the time. Sample of the superb taste of the patrician classes of Buenos Aires at the beginning of the last century.

Difficult to find, but worth looking for!

Check opening times and servicess, because it is not always open. Photography: allowed
Written 4 March 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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Basílica del Santísimo Sacramento, Buenos Aires

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