Barolo Palace

Barolo Palace is one of the most beautiful sights of Buenos Aires. Located a few steps from Congress, it occupies an entire block. Barolo Palace, for several years was the tallest skyscraper in South America. This building was built in 1923 by Italian architect Mario Palanti, for the famous industrialist Luis Barolo, its height is 100 meters (22 floors).

Mario Palanti, at Barolo’s request, drafted the building based on Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. Luis Barolo planned to transport Dante’s ashes from Italy to Argentina, and the Palace was to become a grand mausoleum for the Italian genius. The overall structure of the building consists of three parts: hell, purgatory and paradise. The underground floor symbolizes hell, the first 14 floors - purgatory, the remaining floors - paradise, and the dome symbolizes God. The architecture of the building combines two styles: on the one hand there is a bias towards Venetian Gothic, on the other - stylization for religious Indian architecture. In 1997, the building was declared a historical monument.

Currently, the building has several travel agencies, a Spanish language school for foreigners, a shop that sells clothes for tango, offices of accountants, lawyers and a special office in the basement.