Luis Barolo, a progressive and powerful agricultural producer, arrived in Argentina
in 1890. He was the first to bring machines to spin cotton and
dedicated himself to the importation of fabrics. He installed the first combed wool
spinning mills in the country and started the first
cotton crops in the Chaco. On the centenary of the May Revolution, he met Architect
Mario Palanti (1885-1979), whom he hired to carry out the project of a building
that he had in mind. This would become a rental-only property. Luis Barolo thought,
like all Europeans living in Argentina, that Europe would
suffer numerous wars that would destroy the entire continent.
Desperate to preserve the ashes of the famous Dante Alighieri, he wanted to build a
building inspired by the poet's
work, “the Divine Comedy.” The land chosen to build the palace had an area of 1,365 m2
and a front of 30.88
meters. With a total of 24 floors (22 floors and 2 basements), 100 meters in height were
made possible thanks to a special concession granted by Mayor Luis Cantilo in 1921, since
it exceeded the maximum
allowed by the avenue by almost four times. The highest point of the dome measures
90 meters, reaching 100 meters with a large rotating lighthouse of 300,000
candles that made it visible from Uruguay. Its own power plant supplied it with
energy. In the 1920s, this would make it what we would call a “smart building”
today. Since then there have been 2 freight elevators and 9 elevators, two of which
are hidden.
Architect Palanti was also a scholar of the Divine Comedy, and filled the Palace with
references to it. The floor
plan of the building is built based on the golden section and the golden number.
The general division of the
Palace and the Divine Comedy is into three parts: hell, purgatory and heaven. The nine
access vaults represent the nine steps of initiation and the nine infernal hierarchies;
The lighthouse represented the nine angelic choirs.
Above the lighthouse is the constellation of the Southern Cross that can be seen
aligned with the axis of Barolo in thefirst days of June at 7:45 p.m. The
height of the building is 100 meters and 100 are the edges of Dante's work;It has
22 floors, as many as there are stanzas of the verses of the Divine Comedy.
The careful details characterize this project:
from the personal
quotes in Latin about Dante's work in the building, to its opening, carried out on the
date of the poet's anniversary. Architect Carlos Hilger details the similarities of the
building
with Dante's work, “The Divine Comedy.” “The distribution of the building is
based on the meter of Dante's Divine Comedy. In architecture this is known as a Danteun.
Building is divided into two blocks, with 11 offices per block on each level. The
remaining number, 22, responds to the meter used by Dante in the 100 cantos In the
central passage, the palace has 9 access vaults that represent hell: for Dante, this
was not a theological goal, but rather the starting point in the initiation stages
undertaken for the arrival of paradise. The 9 vaults are divided, from the center,
as follows: three towards Avda. de Mayo, three towards Hipólito Yrigoyen, the central
vault extends towards the dome, and those that contain the stairs towards the sides.
bronze in which a statue of a condor was originally located with the body of
Dante elevating it to paradise. The current owner of the piece is a Mar del Plata
collector who refuses to sell it to the owners of the building. The upper floors and
the dome symbolize the
seven levels of purgatory. The dome is inspired by a Hindu temple dedicated to love,
and is the emblem of
the completion of Dante's union with his beloved Beatrice.