Palacio Barolo

This guide to Palacio Barolo in Buenos Aires follows textile magnate Luis Barolo and his architect Mario Palanti, who feared Europe was doomed after World War One and set out to save Dante Alighieri's remains from the coming ruin. You'll hear how the tower's height, floor count, and division into underworld, purgatory, and paradise all encode the Divine Comedy, and how a beacon atop it was built to reach a twin tower across the river in Montevideo. It's a story that starts with an immigrant's fortune and a six-hundred-year-old grave in Ravenna.