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Visit to the Historical Wax Museum

Marcos Rodríguez

Pablo Etchevers

On the second floor of an ancient grand house in La Boca, we found the only wax museum in Argentina, a way of co-existing with the past.

Time takes it all away. But there is one site in La Boca (a historical site itself) where the past stands before us and even seems to hold our hand. It is the Historical Wax Museum, lying meters away from well-known Caminito.

Through this very particular technique known as ceroplastic, this museum invites us into a journey back in time to the past of the Province of Buenos Aires up to what this picturesque nook in town represents today.

The Skin of the Past

The ceroplastic technique gives shape to “statues” featuring an almost human presence as a result of the wax texture and color. These waxworks seem to be on the verge of life. This great realism is used as an educational means to place the men who built up Argentina right before our eyes.

Starting with the diprothomo (reconstructed from the skull found by Florentino Ameghino at Dársena Norte), going through the Querandí natives, don Pedro de Mendoza and Juan de Garay, a gallery of characters and their environments appeared before us as we toured around the museum.

Structured in a series of frames or “dioramas” featuring the passing of men through this region and its context, we followed a chronological line ending in the XX century and with two names (of two friends) that gave La Boca its final face: Benito Quinquela Martín and Juan de Dios Filiberto. One of them with color, the other one with rhythm, both of them built the image of this famous neighborhood.

The House of History

The building whose second floor houses this museum is a traditional grand house from the early XX century. Raised in 1902 and featuring an Italian Renaissance style, this house was one of the first to be built in brick and cement in La Boca. A family home, in 1904 the Socialist Committee made up by Mr. Alfredo Palacios took place here. On June 11, 1980, the Historical Wax Museum was inaugurated in the venue.

History Has More than One Face

But the proliferation of faces is not restrained to the great celebrities mentioned above. The walls and corridors feature more eyes looking at us and representing various elements that gave shape to Argentina.

The collection is completed with magazine covers and old tango scores, a selection of photographs and newspaper clippings that show how La Boca looked almost one century ago.

Unique and mysterious, this multicolored nook may be surprising.