Casa Museo Gardeliana is the first port of call for tango lovers visiting Medellín.
The death of Carlos Gardel in a plane crash at Medellín’s Enrique Olaya Herrera Airport in 1935 was, perhaps, the first time Medellín had been in the international spotlight.
While tango lovers argued as to whether Gardel was born in French Toulouse or the Uruguayan Tacuarembó and about the significance of his childhood in Buenos Aires, Medellín was quick to claim Gardel as one of its own.
In 1973 Casa Gardeliana was established in Manrique, a neighbourhood in Medellín synonymous with violence, which it is said embodies tango’s melancholic qualities of pain, passion and nostalgia.
And so it was the perfect setting for a ghostly shrine to Gardel which included many of his personal belongings.
Casa Gardeliana attracted tango’s most important performers through the years until it was proclaimed a Cultural Heritage site in 2002 and subsequently changed its name to Casa Museo Gardeliana.
While Casa Museo Gardeliana no longer hosts spectacular milongas, its new cultural status has ensured the everlasting spirit of Gardel in Medellín.
Casa Museo Gardeliana operates as a museum on weekdays and celebrates with an excellent tango show every friday night.
Casa Museo Gardeliana
Cra. 45, 76 – 50, Manrique
(+57 4) 212 0968
www.museocasagardeliana.org
