Salvo Palace

Inaugurated in 1928, PALACIO SALVO emerged as a bizarre beast in the city landscape, delighting and irritating architecture buffs for decades. The building, designed by the Italian architect Mario Palanti, contains everything you could want, from a cinema to a hotel. The palace was originally topped with a lighthouse with a parabolic mirror of 920mm and a range of roughly 100 kilometers, but the light was eventually removed in favor of an antenna, giving the 27-story building its eventual height of 100 meters. With this addition, it was previously thought to be the tallest building in South America, but the antenna has since been removed, reducing it to nothing more than a beautiful architectural exhibition.

Initially intended as a luxury hotel, the palace was never completed and now serves as a very ornate collection of private apartments and offices. The vast majority of rooms in the gothic palace vary in condition and are claimed to be occupied by a diverse clientele. Wandering about the building, you may come upon a three-million-dollar music studio, a radio station, and women of the night doing business. Palacio Salvo is a living creature and a must-see for anybody visiting Montevideo. Because tourists are not permitted to enter the edifice (though you may be able to locate someone kind who will invite you), simply viewing the palace from Plaza Independencia is worth a visit.

Google rating: 4.5/5.0
Address: Palacio Salvo, Pl. Independencia 848, 11100 Montevideo, Departamento de Montevideo, Uruguay
Phone: +598 2900 1264
Website: N/a