Probably The Quirkiest Museum in Buenos Aires +1

There are a lot of museums in Buenos Aires.. in the past few days I visited two small specialty museums both by accident. I can’t say that ever happened before. 

The Palace of Running Water probably has the most beautiful exterior in Buenos Aires and covers an entire city block. You can’t miss seeing it as you drive or walk by. It was originally a water pumping station built in the Victorian era. The elaborately tiled structure hides the city’s water system. It was built at a time that mass immigration caused several epidemics of yellow fever, cholera and typhoid and was something of an architectural marvel in its day. 

The inside is rather industrial and less impressive. All household bills in Argentina need to be paid in person, not online or through the mail. This includes water bills or electric bills. So the first thing you see when you enter the building is a long line of people waiting to pay their water bill. You would not believe how much time people spend here waiting on lines for stuff like this. 

The small free museum exhibits a mix of floor plans, pipes, photographs and drawings. There was also an exhibit of art created with recycled materials. Actually it was this exhibit we went to see, we didn’t even know about the museum. Mostly I just wanted to see inside this beautiful building. I am often surprised what is inside open doorways of old buildings in foreign cities. Well this exhibit of plumbing fixtures was certainly a surprise. 

Toilets and bidets. Bidets are in most, if not all homes here. 

The sculptures were made from recycled materials,  mostly  water bottles and soda cans.

Made from cut and colored water bottles

 mostly water bottles

Not a must-do museum but interesting.

The second museum was also a surprise. We went to a piano concert held in the beautiful main synagogue of Buenos Aires.

It is located in the center of town half a block from the famous Teatro Colon, the main theater of the city which also has  lovely architecture.

 Here is a photo of the interior during the concert.

Before I left the synagogue i walked through their small museum. The bulk of their collection was art relating to immigration to Argentina, which started during that wave in the Victorian era. Here are some photos.

This is a painting of passengers coming over In a ship in steerage class.
This is how my eight year old father came to America as well . He and his siblings were supposed to have a stateroom but as children traveling alone they were thrown into steerage and the room sold to someone else. 

An early immigrant.

Last spring I posted several times about the art in Argentina, One post was April 22 which included street art. Another was earlier than that and showed art from the terrific MALBA museum of Latin American art. If you enjoy looking at photos of art you might want to scroll back and look at those nice pieces again.