A Trip to Hell and Back

A Trip to Hell and Back
(On a bright autumn day in Buenos Aires)
@ Supriya Chakrabarti, 1974 Electronics & Tele Communication Engineering

I would like to welcome all of you to hell, said the guide in a distinct Argentine accent after saying the same words in Spanish and Portuguese to our small tour group of about eight visitors from the US, Mexico and France. No steel door closed behind us with an ominous thud after we entered this beautiful high-ceiling atrium covered with Carrara marble and many adornments. I looked back and could see the street outside was still bright with autumn afternoon sunlight filtering through trees.

We entered Palacio Barolo (Barolo Palace) from Avenida de Mayo (May Avenue), named in honor of the 1810 May revolution that culminated in Argentine independence. This beautiful one-mile-long street is bookended on the western side by Plaza del Congreso and the Palace of the Argentine National Congress (Palacio del Congreso de la Nación Argentina, as it is officially called). The Congress Plaza has two smaller green spaces that make room for the May Avenue to snake through them. The larger one is named after Mariano Moreno, one of the leaders of the May revolution. The Mariano Moreno Plaza pays tribute to the creation of the state with the Kilometer zero monument – the starting point of all distance measurements in Argentina. For art lovers, it also houses one of the eight original castings of The Thinker made by the French artist Auguste Rodin, himself. On the eastern end, May Avenue stops at Plaza de Mayo, the center of political life of Buenos Aires that has witnessed many historic events, protests, and marches. The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, formed with the goal of finding their disappeared children, has continued their silent march every Thursday at 3:30 PM since April 30, 1977. The “Mothers” wear white head scarves with names of children and grandchildren sewn on them. It also houses the oldest monument of Argentina – the Pyramide de Mayo (the May Pyramid) erected on the first anniversary if the 1810 revolution. Casa Rosada (the Pink House – the office of the President of Argentina) lies beyond the plaza.

As we entered Palacio Barolo, a sign reminded us that this elegant abuela, Spanish for grandma, celebrated her 100th birthday in 2023. We went to the ticket kiosk with its beautiful green glass dome that looks like an umbrella located on the other end of the long lobby with a high ceiling. In our rush for the English language tour, I missed the darkened bronze statue of a condor (vulture) with the effects of aging showing, save for its head and the beak shiny with repeated pats by visitors. Fortunately, it was the gathering spot of the tour, where our guide provided a brief history of this office building and pointed out many symbols hidden in plain view – some on the floor, some on the walls and pillars. But first, some background.

The Italian Connection – a contextual detour
Following the unification and the establishment as a country in 1861, Italy saw an economic decline for its farmers, laborers and craftsmen, and working class. Low agricultural production and population growth made unemployment a serious burden for the young nation. To alleviate this crisis, the Italian government instituted an emigration law that resulted in mass migration. Coincidentally, Argentina’s growing economy and its reputation as El Granero del Mundo (World’s granary) and a pro-immigration policy allowed it to accept over 2.5 million Italian immigrants between 1861 and 1914, including a farmer named Luigi (or Luis) Barolo.

When the Argentina Centennial to commemorate the May revolution and the formation of the first local government on May 25, 1810 was being celebrated, Argentina has gradually developed until to-day she is the brightest, the wealthiest, and the most promising of all the Latin republics of South America. Within twenty years of his arrival, Luis Barolo became a wealthy and powerful businessman, he had the only wool-spinning mill in Argentina producing fine cashmeres, thus could rightfully count himself among one of the Rich like an Argentine.

The Milan-born architect Mario Palanti arrived in Buenos Aires in 1909, at that time the eighth largest city in the world. He was the lead designer of the of the Italian pavilion at the Centennial International Exposition. He met Barolo at that time and the two kindred spirits shared many interests such as their admiration for the works of the Italian poet Dante Aligheiri and their memberships in the fraternal order of Freemasonry.

Like many contemporary immigrants, Barolo feared the destruction of cultural heritage because of impending World War and wanted to preserve them. He envisioned an iconic office building that would include architectural features to tell the story of Dante’s most famous work – La Divina Commmedia (The Divine Comedy) written between 1308 and 1321. Being of the same mind, Barolo commissioned Palanti to build a 100 m tall building made of reinforced concrete that, would become the tallest building in South America and would require special permit. This height would be our first encounter with the numerical homage to the Divine Comedy, which has 100 cantos (a word derived from the Latin word cantus that means song or a section of a long poem; for those interested, the first canto of Divine Comedy can be enjoyed here).

Mario Palanti returned home after the exposition and then served as a volunteer in the Italian armed forces during the World War 1. He returned to Argentina in 1919 to complete the shrine to Dante by the 600th anniversary of his death. In the same year, he was awarded a U.S. patent for the Palandomus, a concrete block that allows strong bonding between other blocks without the need for plaster for walls up to 70 m high. It was also suitable for architectural features such as jack arch, archivolt and openings for doors and windows in walls (time for Google run?).

A side trip to Dante’s cosmology and the Divine Comedy
The repetition of patterns and the movements of stars and planets were noted by ancients of all cultures. Assyrians and Babylonians were most likely the first to systematically chart the heavens. By 2,000 BCE, they developed the system of the zodiac which is still used in astrology. Great strides in our understanding of the universe were made by the Greeks, who believed that through critical inquiry and open evaluation it was possible to understand the natural laws that the Universe follows. They placed great emphasis on the process of learning, which was the seed for modern education system. Thales (624 – 547 B. C.), who is considered to be the first recorded western philosopher traveled to Egypt and upon return introduced astronomy to Greece. Much about the heavens has been known due to tool building, meticulous observations and record keeping by ancient Greeks.

Cladius Ptolemaeus (85 – 165 A.D.) (commonly known as Ptolemy) summarized Greek astronomy in a 13-volume collection (appropriately named Great Collection or Megiste Syntaxis) which is popularly known by its Arab name Almagest. The Greek model of the universe thus compiled is unjustly called the Ptolemic Model, since all he did was to compile all previous work. In this model all known celestial objects revolved in circles with uniform speed around the stationary Earth.

The Earth, a sphere, is located at the center of this universe and is surrounded by spheres of water, fire, and air. Next followed the spheres of the 7 planets – these, unlike stars, were the wanderers in the sky. Because Uranus and Neptune could not be seen with naked eyes only seven planets included. Beyond the circle of Saturn in this model lied the stars and finally the Primum Mobile or the prime mover, that became the essence of God. Note, the wheel that turns the universe at the top left corner of this popular image. This view of astronomy and Christian theology was at the heart of the universe in Dante’s Divine Comedy, which was written in early 1307. Those conversant in the history of astronomical development will note that this was two centuries prior to the publication of De revolutionibus, by Polish astronomer Mikołaj Kopernik or as he is known worldwide – Nicolaus Copernicus.

The Divine Comedy describes Dante’s jouney to the afterlife in three parts starting with – Inferno (Hell), through Purgatorio (Purgatory) and finally to Paradiso (Heaven). His universe shown on the right is a combination of Ptolemy’s cosmology and Christian Theology. The immobile Earth lies at the center of the universe with human populating the Northern hemisphere. It does describe some geographic features such as the river Ganges (Foce del Gange on the left), the Iberian Peninsula, Jerusalem and Colonne de Ercole (Pillars of Hercules) are also seen.

Dante, accompanied by Roman poet Virgil, travels through Hell, which is divided in nine circles to the seven-terraced mountain of purgatory, one for each deadly sin. After his sins are cleansed, Dante enters the heaven without Virgil, who being a pagan, is left in limbo. Beatrice, his childhood love, accompanies him to paradise, which has nine rings – one for each angel surrounded by the Empyrean, the mind of God, which turns the Primum Mobile, which governs the Universe.

Back to Barolo Palace

Even though the understanding of the Universe had changed significantly, since the days of Dante, the primary motivation of Luis Barolo was to preserve the cultural heritage of Europe with an office building – it does not have any shower – so, it cannot be used as living space. The building was also planned to serve as the mausoleum for Dante’s ashes. An image that guided their thinking is this image – a commedia illumina Firenze (The Comedy Illuminating Florence) shown above. It is a fresco on the wall of the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower (Santa Maria del Fiore or Florence Cathedral) this painting by Domenico di Francesco. It shows Dante holding a copy of the Divine Comedy and pointing the entrance to Hell with his right hand (towards bottom left in the image). The city of Florence with the cathedral dome on his left and the mountain of Purgatory over his right shoulder. The realm of Paradise arches above it all.

The architectural features for Barolo Palace combined several European styles. It includes a bronze dome that symbolizes Dante’s love for Beatrice. It was inspired by the dome of the Rajarani Temple in Bhubaneswar, locally known as Love Temple. The balconies were influenced by the façade of Hawa Mahal in Jaipur.
Our tour guide gave us a lot of information, much has evaporated – as they say, the mind is a terrible thing. For example, all important building materials such as marble for floors and 1,410 steps and granite for the walls were imported from Italy. The nine elevators of which two are hidden for Barolo’s use without being seen by the tenants were procured from Switzerland (like a fine Swiss watch, still running). Special permission needed to build this skyscraper, which exceeded the then maximum allowed height of about 25 m. Two buildings were torn down apparently, to get the preferred address for the building – 1370 Av. de Mayo. Adding up the digits, you get 11, the number that supposedly represents transgression.

We started our journey at the main entrance hall – symbolizing Hell. She pointed out many symbols – appropriately scary adornments and nine domes representing the hierarchies of Hell. We were told that the building has 22 floors and 22 balconies, not counting the basement or the ground levels. Apparently, there are 22 verses in 100 cantos – but not being a musicologist, I will stick with its Masonry reference to pi, combining 22 with 7, the number of deadly sins. The 14 levels represent Purgatory, with two floors for each terrace Dante climbed with Virgil.

There were some intriguing mysteries about the condor sculpture symbolizing Dante’s ascension to the heaven. It turns out that it was stolen, because the thieves believed that it contained Dante’s ashes. Fortunately, it was recovered, but stolen again and recovered a second time. It was not recovered when it disappeared the third time. There are suggestions that it has been melted (like the Jules Rimet trophy? For the price of Bronze?) and also that it is with a collector who refuses to return or sell it. We did see the base of the original sculpture in the small museum that houses original office equipment, desks, and knickknacks.

Besides paying homage to the Divine Comedy, such as the nine arches representing the nine circles of Hell, this floor also includes symbols from Freemasonry. For example, the marble floor is red, white and green, the colors of Italian flag and includes chain which is a Masonic symbol for Brotherhood. These are seen better from above. We admired these and other details such as the flower-shaped glass panels on the floor and met the rest by the elevators.

As we climbed up the terraces of purgatory, things got airier and the flourishes on the walls got simpler – symbolizing us leaving Earthly baggage behind. From here, we took the lift to the 14th floor – the starting point of our final journey to Paradise.

Like an excited kid, I went looking everywhere. A peek out a windswept balcony above the May Avenue. Through a window we saw a landmark “steel painting” of Eva Peron, arguably the most revered first lady of Argentina, on the side of the Ministry of Health’s building. It is the only building on La Avenida 9 de Julio (July 9 Avenue) whose address includes the street named in honor of Argentina’s Independence Day. It also is world’s widest road, thereby posing challenges to kids of all ages to cross it without stopping in the middle. July 9 Avenue has the Obelisk, the signature landmark, that was built in just 31 days and where the futbol fans gather in celebration (May and July 9 Avenues run perpendicular to each other). Barolo is really a working office building – we saw an office of a business that designs and sells shoes (photos below).

The final climb up to paradise involves a narrow stair with 115 steps to the top (somebody actually counted them!). To the 22nd floor, where a glass enclosed lighthouse allows a view of the city. This stairway to heaven is perilous and not suitable for sumo wrestlers, as the cautionary sign on the wall noted cuidado con el hombro (be careful with your shoulder – it came too late for me to notice the warning. The stairs ended at the dome that originally held the ascension statue of the condor carrying Dante to paradise. Currently, it hosts two Fleur-De-Lis, symbolizing love. We were told that the Southern Cross (or Crux), Southern hemisphere’s most famous and the smallest of all constellations hovers over the dome around 7:45 PM on June 1. The dome also houses a rotating beam of high-power light, a lighthouse located very far from the water’s edge, that was designed to be seen from the Uruguayan capital Montevideo, across the river Plate approximately 200 km away, as the condor, er crow, flies.

On our way down we stopped at the floor with a red terrace. We could see the green walls with white trims, reminding us of the Italian and Masonic connections. We admired the dome and the sky dressed in Argentine colors. Here we learned a bit more of the building’s history and related trivia – it was completed in 1923, a year after the suspicious death of Barolo at age 52 and was blessed by a representative of the Pope on 7-7-1923 (more numerology?). Dante’s remains remains in Ravenna, Italy. The light from the dome was planned to telegraph important messages using different colors –most notably live updates of the 1923 World boxing Heavyweight Title match from New York between American Jack Dempsey and Luis Angel Firpo, the Argentine known as the Wild Bull of the Pampas. Palacio Barolo remained the tallest building in South America until a nearby reinforced concrete residential building – the 120 m high Edificio Kavanaugh replaced it in 1936 for a decade.

In 1923 Palanti proposed and won the design competition of a twin building at the mouth of Rio de la Plata (La Plata River) on Plaza Independencia in Montevideo. Architecturally, the two buildings are similar – and it was completed in 1928, just three years after construction began. Palanti’s design of a light house on top of each building was to symbolize the Pillars of Heracles (Hercules), which of course was also mentioned in the Divine Comedy. It took a while, but even I reached information overload.

We came out to the bright street – happy and content. I had to take one last look at the elegant woman wearing a flowing white sari and a green crown. Our son had already hailed a cab and started giving the driver directions. To me it looked as if his Thamma was smiling back at us. I almost heard her say “Nos vemos” to “Adios Abuela” uttered under my breath.