History

Mario Palanti arrived in Buenos Aires in 1909 and won the Palacio Barolo commission from textile magnate Luis Barolo in 1919. The building (1919–1923) was the tallest in South America on completion. Its 22 floors correspond to the 22 cantos of Dante’s Inferno; the 100-metre height equals the 100 cantos of the Commedia; the lighthouse dome rotates and was intended to be visible across the Río de la Plata to Montevideo, where Palanti simultaneously designed the Palacio Salvo as its counterpart. The lobby arcade recreates Hell in polished stone and iron; the upper floors Purgatory; the dome Paradise. The building now operates as a commercial property with a panoramic terrace and guided tours.

The Kavanagh Building (1936, Sánchez, Lagos y de la Torre) rose 120 metres above Plaza San Martín — the tallest reinforced-concrete structure in the world on completion and one of the purest Art Déco towers in South America. Its stepped crown and limestone cladding recall the Chrysler Building; its ground-floor lobby retains original terrazzo and chrome fittings. The Confitería del Molino (1916–1917, Francisco Gianotti) across from the Congress — a Liberty-Art Déco hybrid with a windmill crown — closed in 1997, fell into severe disrepair, and reopened after extensive restoration in 2022, recovering one of Buenos Aires’s most significant interior spaces.