This beautiful house right in the middle of busy Buenos Aires holds a serene Spanish-like courtyard, complete with plants and a quiet fountain. While there, you won’t believe you’re still in the heart of the hectic city, surrounded by plants and shelves of books that belonged to the private library of Ricardo Rojas (1882-1957).

Rojas wrote poems, essays, and plays, and was also a great promoter of education and intellect. While a professor at the University of Buenos Aires, he created the first syllabus for a class on Argentine literature which, until then, was only a marginal topic in a broader genre of Spanish literature.

Rojas was interested in the constant interaction between Europe and Latin America, particularly Latin American’s efforts to combine a European influence with their indigenous selves in a search for a sense of native identity.

The house where he lived is the work of Ángel Guido, who gave shape to what Rojas called euríndico, a term for this conception of culture as a melting pot for European and Latin American societies. It now holds a museum full of furniture, artwork, and artifacts. Its library houses thousands of books and newspapers, many of which were donated.