Palacio Barolo was builded by the Italian architect Mario Palanti for Luis Barolo, a successful entrepreneur who made his fortune from knitted fabrics. Inaugurated in 1923, it was the tallest building in Buenos Aires until the Kavanagh was constructed in 1935. Since its founding, it has been used as an office building. It is crowned by a lighthouse with 300,000 bulbs.

Palanti was a scholar and an admirer of Dante Alighieri and the building's design is based on the Divine Comedy. The building is