Villa Ocampo, the house museum of Victoria Ocampo
Villa Ocampo is a house museum in Béccar, in San Isidro Partido, Buenos Aires Province, built in 1891 as the summer residence of the Ocampo family. It was the home of the writer Victoria Ocampo, founder of Sur magazine, and is today a national historic monument and one of the most interesting hidden gems near Buenos Aires.
In this summer house Borges and Bioy Casares first met in 1931. Decades later its owner gave it to UNESCO, and a fire in 2003 nearly destroyed it before a ten-year restoration.
The history of Villa Ocampo
In 1580, shortly after the founding of Buenos Aires, Juan de Garay shared out 65 plots along the northern shore. Over time they were used for crops and, by the later 19th century, became summer country houses for aristocratic Buenos Aires families. Villa Ocampo rose in this setting between 1890 and 1891, on a ten-hectare plot reaching down to the Río de la Plata. The owner was Francisca Ocampo de Ocampo, who commissioned the work from her nephew, the engineer Manuel Silvino Ocampo, Victoria's father. He equipped the house with the technical advances of the day to lodge the family through the summers, which ran from November to March.
Francisca had no children and her will provided that the property would pass to the five daughters of the Ocampo couple: Victoria, Angélica, Francisca, Rosa and Silvina. After the death of Manuel in 1931 and of his wife Ramona Aguirre in 1935, the sisters inherited the house and the land, which was subdivided. Victoria and Angélica kept the house and about one hectare of garden.
At the beginning of the 1940s Victoria settled there permanently. She redecorated it to make it brighter and more austere, with a mix of modernity and tradition that was avant-garde for its time. Once Sur magazine was founded she became a great hostess of the Southern Cone, and figures of 20th-century culture such as Albert Camus, Graham Greene, Gabriela Mistral, Igor Stravinsky, Le Corbusier, Pablo Neruda, Rabindranath Tagore, Federico García Lorca and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry stayed or spent whole days in the house. Borges and Bioy Casares also met there in 1931.
In 1973 Victoria Ocampo gave Villa Ocampo to UNESCO, which took charge of it after her death in 1979. In 1997 the Argentine government declared it a National Historic Monument. In 2003 a fire in the roofs of the north wing, caused by a short circuit in the old electrical installation, destroyed a large number of books, items of furniture and letters. UNESCO then created the Villa Ocampo Project to restore it.
The restoration, which ran until 2013, brought back the building, the garden and the historic collections, and modernised the facilities to receive visitors. The ground floor opened in 2005 and the first floor in April 2008. Since then it has worked as a house museum and a space for debates and exhibitions, and in 2017 its Documentation Centre was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.
Curious facts about Villa Ocampo
- According to one source, Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares first met in this house in 1931.
- The villa inspired the Blue Villa in Alain Robbe-Grillet's novel La Maison de rendez-vous, published in 1965.
- The music room holds a Steinway piano that Igor Stravinsky, Federico García Lorca and Arthur Rubinstein played.
- The main entrance displays a tapestry by Pablo Picasso and an original lift installed in 1913.
- The library holds many books with handwritten dedications from their authors and notes in Victoria Ocampo's own hand.
- The house's Documentation Centre was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2017.
Tours near Villa Ocampo
Experiences in the area that you can book online with Viator:
Visiting Villa Ocampo
- Villa Ocampo works as a house museum with guided visits, as well as debates, exhibitions and other cultural activities. Check the current opening days and hours before you go.
- On the ground floor the highlights are the dining room, with a table for 16 and Bauhaus lamps, the hall with portraits painted by Prilidiano Pueyrredón, and the music room.
- On the first floor are Victoria Ocampo's bedroom, her desk with her typewriter and the library; other rooms are used as temporary exhibition spaces.
- The house is surrounded by a historic garden of some 11,000 square metres.
- Its architecture is eclectic, with British and French influences.
Opening hours, access and conditions can change. Check before you go.
Map: where Villa Ocampo is
Photos of Villa Ocampo
Questions
What is Villa Ocampo?
It is a house museum in Béccar, San Isidro, built in 1891 as the summer residence of the Ocampo family. It was the home of the writer Victoria Ocampo and today belongs to UNESCO.
Where is Villa Ocampo?
In Béccar, in San Isidro Partido, north of Buenos Aires, on Calle Elortondo.
Who lived in Villa Ocampo?
The writer Victoria Ocampo, founder of Sur magazine, settled there permanently at the beginning of the 1940s and lived in the house until her death in 1979.
Why does Villa Ocampo belong to UNESCO?
Victoria Ocampo gave it to UNESCO in 1973, and the organisation has since looked after its upkeep and cultural use.
Which famous people visited Villa Ocampo?
Among others, Albert Camus, Graham Greene, Gabriela Mistral, Igor Stravinsky, Le Corbusier, Pablo Neruda and Rabindranath Tagore.
Can you visit the inside of Villa Ocampo?
Yes, it works as a house museum with guided visits. Days and hours may change, so check them before you go.
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