Calle Florida

About this place

Calle Florida is Argentina's best-known shopping street, a pedestrian way running through the heart of Buenos Aires from Avenida Rivadavia to Plaza San Martín. It began as a track climbing up from the river when the city was founded, became the city's first paved street in 1789, with stones brought from Montevideo, and took its present name in 1821. In the early twentieth century it became the street of elegant shops and fashionable cafés, lined with large commercial buildings, some still standing, the best known being the Galerías Pacífico with its painted dome. Cars were partly banned from 1913, and it became fully pedestrian on 1 July 1971. Walking it is free; it is busiest in working hours with shoppers, office workers and visitors, and its northern end leads into the green Plaza San Martín. Watch your belongings in the crowds.