The city's oldest barrio, all cobbles and faded mansions, at its best on Sunday when the antiques fair fills the streets and tango starts in the square.
San Telmo was the home of the city's well-off families until a yellow fever epidemic in 1871 sent them north. Their mansions were split into crowded tenements, and the barrio became a cradle of tango.
Its heart is the iron-and-glass Mercado de San Telmo, built in 1897, where fruit and butcher stalls sit alongside antique dealers, vintage shops and small coffee bars.
On Sundays the Feria de San Telmo stretches along Calle Defensa for blocks, selling silver, soda siphons, old maps and crafts, and couples dance tango for the crowd in Plaza Dorrego.
The barrio is also full of old-fashioned parrillas for a long Sunday lunch, and corner bars where tango is played and danced late into the night.
From the centre down to the park.
Walk south from Plaza de Mayo along Calle Defensa, where the stalls begin.
Browse the crafts and curios, ducking into the antique shops in the old houses either side.
Wander the market hall's iron arcades for vintage finds and a coffee or empanada.
Watch the dancers in the little square, the centre of the fair, then sit down for lunch at a parrilla.
Continue to Parque Lezama, said to be where the city was first founded, and the Russian Orthodox church.
Walk from Plaza de Mayo, or take the Subte to Independencia or San Juan and walk east.
The fair runs Sunday from late morning into the evening; the market hall opens daily.
Bargaining is gentle at most stalls; dealers in the shops expect fixed prices.
Buenos Aires practical notes →Photographs from Wikimedia Commons and Pexels under their licences.
