Palacio Salvo

Palacio Salvo (English: Salvo Palace) is a building in Montevideo, Uruguay, located at the intersection of 18 de Julio Avenue and Plaza Independencia. It was designed by the architect Mario Palanti, an Italian immigrant living in Buenos Aires, who used a similar design for his Palacio Barolo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Finished in 1928, Palacio Salvo stands 100 metres high with the antenna included.

The site was bought by the Salvo brothers for 650,000 Uruguayan pesos. It was built on the site where the Confiteria La Giralda was once located, a place renowned for being where Gerardo Matos Rodríguez wrote his tango La Cumparsita, in 1917.

The original specifications describing the details of the construction, describe a lighthouse at the top of the building which was replaced by the antenna that is currently there. The specifications stated “on the top part of the tower a lighthouse will be placed made by Salmoiraghi of Italy, with a parabolic mirror of 920 mm, reaching approximately 100km., and a rotating 100 amp lamp.”

The building was originally intended to be a hotel, but this plan didn't work out and it has since been occupied by a mixture of offices and private residences. The building itself is 95 metres high, but 100 metres if you include the antenna. For decades it was the tallest building in South America. The roof-top antenna was removed permanently in November, 2012.

  • Front view of the building

  • View of the Artigas Mausoleum, with the Palacio Salvo in the background.

  • Plaza Independencia. The Gateway of The Citadel, the Artigas Mausoleum and the Palacio Salvo can be seen in the picture.

Famous quotes containing the word salvo:

    Old heavens, you used to tweak above us,
    Standing like rain whenever a salvo . . . Old heavens,
    You lying there above the old, but not ruined, fort,
    Can you hear, there, what I am saying?
    For it is you I am parodying,
    Your invisible denials.
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)