The great burial places described in my book of the same name contain the tombs of many famous and powerful women. Two, in La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, bear mention.

Remedios de Escalada, María (1797-1823) was the wife of the leader of the Argentine war of independence, General José de San Martín. The Escaladas were prominent in local commerce and became active supporters of the May Revolution of 1810. It was at this time that María met José de San Martín, a general who had recently moved to Buenos Aires after serving in the Peninsular War. They married in 1812. María was fourteen at the time. Her husband’s military responsibilities kept them apart until 1814, when San Martín was appointed Governor of Mendoza Province.

Maria raised huge amounts of money in support of her husband’s efforts to organise and fund the Army of the Andes, a military force that he had raised as part of his campaign to free Chile from Spanish rule. His departure for Chile marked the beginning of a prolonged separation from her husband, during which time she developed tuberculosis. After heading the Protectorate of Peru (1821-22), San Martín travelled to Buenos Aires but Maria died before he arrived. She was 25. She was buried at the La Recoleta Cemetery and the following year San Martín left for France, where he died in exile in 1850.

The most famous person buried in La Recoleta is Evita Perón. María Eva Duarte de Perón (1919-52) was the second wife of Argentine President Juan Perón and served as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. During this time she was a powerful figure within the pro-Peronist trade unions. She also ran the Ministries of Labour and Health, championed women’s suffrage, and founded and ran the nation’s first large female political party, the Female Peronist Party. In 1951 she made a failed bid for the vice-presidency.

The following year she was given the title of “Spiritual Leader of the Nation” by the Argentine Congress. That same year she died from cancer at the age of 33. Then followed a posthumous odyssey that lasted for 35 years, with burials in Milan, Madrid and at several places in Buenos Aires, including in the grounds of the presidential palace. Finally she was laid to rest in the Duarte family mausoleum in La Recoleta. Almost three million people lined the streets of Buenos Aires for her state funeral. It is easy to miss the stately mausoleum that contains her remains as the name above the entrance is that of her family, Duarte. For security reasons her coffin lies beneath those of her other family members, two levels under the main marble floor.

There are many poignant stories in my book Great Burial Places, but two that come to mind are about two women buried in La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentine.

The tomb of Liliana Crociati de Szaszak is of special interest due to its unusual design. The daughter of an Italian painter and poet, Liliana was enjoying her honeymoon in the Austrian Alps in 1970 when an avalanche struck the hotel in which she and her husband were staying. The 26-year-old was killed, allegedly at that same instant that her beloved dog Sabú died, thousands of kilometers away in Argentina. Designed by her mother and modelled on the room Liliana lived in as a young girl, her tomb is made entirely of wood and glass and features narrow gothic style windows. A plaque displays a poem in Italian, written by her father. A bronze statue of Liliana, tinted bluish-green, stands outside the tomb. She is depicted wearing the wedding dress in which she was buried, her right hand resting on Sabú’s head.

Perhaps the saddest story is that of that of Rufina Cambaceres, a young woman who was buried alive in 1902. She had probably fallen into a coma and a few days after her interment workers heard screams from the tomb but before they could reach her she had died of a heart attack. When the tomb was opened it revealed scratches on her face and on the coffin from her attempts to escape. Her mother then built an art nouveau masterpiece, which has become a symbol of La Recoleta. Her coffin is of Carrara marble, carved with a rose on top and it sits behind a glass wall. A statue of a young girl at the door of the tomb, also in marble, turns her head to those watching her. She looks as if she is about to break into tears as her right hand rests on the door of her own tomb.