Feria San Telmo Defensa al 300

This guide to the San Telmo street fair on Calle Defensa opens with a modest nineteen seventy deal struck by architect Jose Maria Pena: thirty stalls of antiques and old silver, confined to a few legal blocks. You'll hear how the fair outgrew that boundary decade by decade, and how a wave of cheap, unrelated goods began crowding out the antique dealers who built the market's name. It follows the mounting tension between longtime vendors and newer sellers as the stalls pushed further from where they were allowed to be. Stand near Plaza Dorrego to see where the original, legal stretch of stalls still begins.