A palace for astronomy in Buenos Aires

ALEJANDRO GANGUI

UNESCO, París, Francia

Simposio; International Astronomical Union - Symposium 260: The Rôle of Astronomy in Society and Culture; 2009

International Astronomical Union (IAU)

In no other epoch of Western history like in the Middle Ages, cosmology was so key an element of culture and, one way or another, the motion of the heavens ended up impregnating the literature of that time. Among the most noteworthy poets we find Dante Alighieri, who became famous for his Commedia, a monumental poem written roughly between 1307 and his death in 1321, and which the critics from XVIth century onwards dubbed Divina. In this and other works, Dante pictures the cosmic image for the world, summing up the current trends of Neoplatonic and Islamic traditions.  The Barolo Palace in the city of Buenos Aires is a singular combination of both astronomy and the worldview displayed in Dante´s poetic masterpiece. Some links of the Palace´s main architectural structure with the three realms of the Comedy have been studied in the past. In this note we consider its unique astronomical flavor, an issue which has not been sufficiently emphasized yet.