When you see the building on Luis Saenz Pena street, you can’t be sure what it is. And the truth is that after the visit, you are still not sure what you have seen. A former home? A museum? A theater? A concert room? Well, it was and it is a bit of all that.
The first Botica del Ángel was created on Lima street. When asked why Botica (translated as boutique or shop), Eduardo Bergara Leumann, his excentric creator, answered “Because there is a bit of everything”. And when asked why Angel, Eduardo answered even more simply “Because Maria Casares told me I was an angel, and I believed her”. So when The Botica del Ángel had to move “in the name of progress” Eduardo flew to Luis Saenz Pena street where his legacy still lives through University of Salvador whom Eduardo settled his museum to.
Eduardo Bergara Leumann, creator of La Botica del Ángel
Eduardo created a very unique place in Buenos Aires. He invited painters, writers, musicians and actors and transformed the place into a museum and a concert room dedicated to diffusion of tango, argentine folklore and culture. You go from a room to another, climb stairs, go through narrow halls and everything, absolutely everything, is covered with art. Even the toilets bowls have been painted. Cloths, discs, books, tributes, paints, drawings, artefacts, objects of all kinds from ground to ceiling transform that already tortuous building into a magical, excentric, colourful, cultural, artistic, incredible patchwork. As the guide told us when we got there. You won’t see everything the first time, impossible. You could surely come tens of times and discover each time something you hadn’t seen before. It’s a magical environment to wander in.
La Botica del Ángel is still a very active place. Every week, guided visits (in spanish), tango shows, argentine folklore shows and expositions happen. You can also visit some rooms for free from Monday to Friday from 2pm to 5pm.
Steak Buenos Aires 