Palacio Barolo
A 1923 tower mapped floor by floor onto Dante's Divine Comedy — hell at the base, purgatory in the middle, heaven at the top.
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Italian architect Mario Palanti encoded the entire Divine Comedy into the structure: 100 meters tall for the 100 cantos, 22 floors divided across the three realms. When it opened in 1923 it was the tallest building in all of South America, and the rooftop lighthouse was aimed across the River Plate to be visible from Montevideo.
What to look for
- The rooftop lighthouse beacon, which represents the nine choirs of angels
- The spire tip bearing an ornament of the Southern Cross constellation
- Floor-by-floor ornamentation — each of the 22 floors carries a unique design
At 1370 Avenida de Mayo in Monserrat; the building still operates with offices, a Spanish-language school, and a tango clothing store inside.
Palacio Barolo is one of 34 sights worth the detour in Buenos Aires, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Buenos Aires pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Buenos Aires
- Mas Monumental Stadium85,018 seats on reclaimed Río de la Plata marshland — the largest stadium in South America, and the ground where a World Cup Final was played.
- La BomboneraThat chocolate-box shape doesn't just look strange — the unusual design gives the bowl its famously excellent acoustics.
- Casa RosadaThe baby-pink paint was a political recipe: mix the Federalists' red with the Unitarians' white, and maybe stop a civil war.
- Teatro ColónAcoustics expert Leo Beranek surveyed leading international opera and orchestra directors and ranked this hall the world's best room for opera — not a slogan, a measured result.
- Oscar and Juan Gálvez Race TrackF1 cars once screamed through the third corner here at 305 km/h, flat out for 40 straight seconds — and the grandstands put you right on top of it.
- Plaza de MayoEvery defining moment in Argentine political life — from the May Revolution to the country's largest street protests — has played out on this one square.