Museum of Spanish Art Enrique Larreta

The Museum of Spanish Art Enrique Larreta is a museum of Spanish art located in the Belgrano ward of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It occupies the former home of Enrique Larreta, the most prominent Argentine exponent of Hispanic modernism in literature and Ambassador to France from 1910 to 1919. The museum was inaugurated in 1962 after the city purchased the property from Larreta's heirs, and it preserves both a significant collection of Spanish art and an important example of neo-Spanish colonial architecture.

The museum resulted from the purchase by the City of Buenos Aires of the home of Enrique Larreta, who died in 1961. His family sold the house and its collections to the municipality for conversion into a museum, and the institution officially opened in October 1962, named in his honor. The founding collection was enriched in 1977 by the transfer of portions of the Isaac Fernández Blanco Museum of Hispanic Art. The site had notable diplomatic associations: during Larreta's lifetime, distinguished guests included King Leopoldo II of Belgium, the Imperial Princes of Japan, and former U.S. Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Henry Kissinger.

The collection spans from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century, with particular strength in medieval art, armor, tapestries, Spanish Renaissance and Baroque art, manuscripts, wood carvings, and French furniture. Larreta amassed these works during numerous visits to Ávila, Spain, during his diplomatic tenure. The museum's holdings were further expanded by acquisitions and donations after its founding. Among its distinctive collections are the Spanish regional costumes that Eva Duarte de Perón received during her 1947 visit to Spain, and a set of costumes belonging to the dancer Antonia Mercé. The museum also houses the Alfonso El Sabio Library, specializing in Spanish literature, and operates La Casita de Arriba, a children's learning annex. Educational programming includes courses, conferences, and seminars.

The museum's twelve exhibition rooms contain works organized around thematic axes that address cultural diversity, religion, and power. Notable works include the Retablo in Honor of Santa Ana, executed in 1503 by the Master of Sinovas, an example of late Gothic style from the era of the Catholic Monarchs; a high relief of Jesus on the Mount of Olives from the workshop of Alonso de Berruguete; and court portraits from the workshop of Alonso Sánchez Coello. The current museological program presents Larreta as novelist, diplomat, and collector, with particular attention to his historical novel La gloria de Don Ramiro. Una vida en tiempos de Felipe II (1908).

The property at Juramento 2291 occupies 7,244.74 m², with gardens covering 6,500 m². Originally built in 1886 as an Italianate summer residence by architect Ernesto Bunge for Francisco Chas Belgrano and his wife Catalina Salas, it was acquired in 1894 by Mercedes Castellanos de Anchorena and given as a wedding gift to her daughter Josefina Anchorena and Enrique Larreta in 1903. Larreta commissioned architect Martín Noel and, following his guidance, Christian Schindler to transform the house into a neo-colonial "Castilian palace" in 1916. This restoration nacionalista incorporated a wide wooden portal with Peruvian moldings and ornaments, and a green lintelled door with an escarzano arch, copying the portal of the demolished Casa Basavilbaso (Old Customs House). The white walls are topped with gambrel tiles; windows have straight dust guards and horizontal slat curtains. The extensive gardens feature ginkgo biloba, ombú, wisteria, cypress, palm, bitter orange, and silk floss trees, with buxus hedges totaling around 700 m. The block forms part of a distinguished architectural ensemble in Belgrano, near the Museo Histórico Sarmiento and the parish of La Inmaculada Concepción (La Redonda).

The Museum of Spanish Art Enrique Larreta is administered by the government of the City of Buenos Aires. Its main entrance is located at Avenida Juramento 2291 in the Belgrano neighborhood. The museum is situated one block from the historic commercial center of Belgrano at the intersection of Avenidas Cabildo and Juramento. Visitors access twelve exhibition rooms within the historic house, which is set within its extensive Andalusian-style gardens.