Devoto Palace, the dream of an immigrant who founded an empire and his widow who wanted to keep the family together
It's one of the most imposing buildings in Buenos Aires. It has a prime location: Avenida del Libertador 2882, between Ugarteche and Scalabrini Ortiz streets. It occupies half a block. They call it "the Devoto Palace," although for Bartolomé Devoto's great-grandchildren, that name sounds vulgar. A few days ago, the fifth floor made headlines because its sale placed it among the most expensive apartments in the city. Its 1,227.26 square meters (862 covered and the rest divided between two terraces) were sold for $9 million.
Carlos Ángel Méndez Green Devoto (80) and his cousin Luis Ortiz Basualdo (51) say the building's wealth isn't reflected in its market value. "It would be impossible," they agree. They maintain that the true foundation of this architectural gem of Buenos Aires is their family history, marked by immigration, progress, unexpected loves, and family secrets.
Now, on the fantastic second floor, they welcome LA NACION to unearth part of that legacy. They proudly present themselves as direct heirs of Bartolomé Devoto, a young Italian who arrived in the country empty-handed and founded an empire.
How did your family's story begin in Argentina? Who was Bartolomé Devoto?
Carlos: Bartolomé Devoto was our great-grandfather. He was originally from Lavagna, a small coastal town in the Ligurian region of Italy. He arrived from Genoa in 1850 with his three brothers. First came Cayetano, then Bartolomé with Antonio, who founded the Villa Devoto neighborhood. Later, Tomás, the youngest. They were from a humble family and very young; Bartolomé was 15 years old when he arrived in Buenos Aires.
-What was your first job?
Carlos: The brothers started working in a general store owned by Silvestre Demarchi, an immigrant from the canton of Ticino who had arrived two decades earlier. They were hard workers—or, as they like to say here now, "laburantes"—and came to the country to "make it big in America." They weren't noble: they had no titles or a "posh" social position. They weren't noble or wealthy; they were ordinary immigrants who, through hard work, ended up making a fortune.
How was that leap possible? How did you go from starting with nothing to building one of the largest fortunes in Buenos Aires?
Luis: They, along with other Italian families, became involved in trade between Italy and Argentina. By the late 1800s, they had access to all the grain export businesses (they exported 10 percent of Argentina's wheat) and the merchandise coming from Italy to Argentina. They planted 300,000 hectares in La Pampa, founded the Devoto Rocha distillery, the Italian Hospital, the Banco Italia, and the Banco Río de la Plata. At that time, everything was new in the country; things were done from scratch: they bought land in the interior and founded towns (among others, Santa Isabel, in Santa Fe).
-The Devoto surname transcended borders. I understand they also gained a foothold in Paraguay.
Carlos: We have a piece of land with titles in the name of my great-grandmother, Bartolomé's wife. It's about 80,000 hectares on the Paraguayan bank of the Pilcomayo River. Over time, friends of President Higinio Morínigo settled there, built their houses, and expropriated the land... Why a piece of land in Paraguay? And that's where the most curious part begins, almost a riddle I still haven't been able to fully solve. After World War I, the percussion system for rifles—the mechanism that fires the bullet—changed in Europe. They switched to centerfire. All the weapons circulating in Latin America had become obsolete; they were still sidefire. Then, one of the Devotos—we never knew if it was our great-grandfather or his brother—saw an opportunity: he went to Italy, bought discarded weapons that were no longer useful there, and brought them back to sell. Paraguay was in the midst of war, and it seems to have paid for part of that armament with land, with those 80,000 hectares that, to this day, remain the subject of a long-running dispute.
Throughout his life, Bartolomé Devoto always maintained a very low profile. Carlos says that, among the four Devoto brothers, Bartolomé was ironically nicknamed "the popular one," precisely because he preferred to stay away from the spotlight.
-In Buenos Aires, where did the family settle?
Carlos: -In the beginning, we don't know. But later they lived in the block bordered by Santa Fe, Rodríguez Peña, Callao, and Marcelo T. It was all theirs.
As the Devoto brothers' fortune grew, so did love. Bartolomé married Virginia Arrotea Alvear, and together they had a daughter. But their happiness was short-lived: both mother and daughter died of typhus, a common disease in Buenos Aires at the beginning of the 19th century.
Carlos: -Do you want us to tell this or leave it out?
Luis: -Yes... what we know... When Bartolomé was left alone, he lived in a large house on Rodríguez Peña 1046...
Carlos: -I'm asking you to stop now because a spicy story is coming up...
Luis: -And also the funniest.
-What happened to Bartholomew after his wife's death?
Carlos: Well... this man had what you might call remarkable sexual vitality. And I say this carefully, because in these times when everything is standardized, it's necessary to speak clearly.
-Was he a Don Juan?
Carlos: No, not at all. He was a convinced monogamist, but sexually motivated. And he fell in love, let's say, with the daughter of a woman who worked in domestic service. At that time, domestic staff were numerous. The mother was a laundress, and the daughter was 17. Bartolomé had his eye on her and didn't waste any time. They were together for a long time and the relationship flourished. But to get married, Bartolomé set a condition: "When you give me a son, I'll marry you," he said. The man was extremely rich and had enormous power. And she, Juana González, a woman with a strong character, accepted without hesitation.
-And the son was born?
Carlos: No, at first, women were born in the rough, among them our grandmothers... until the son arrived and Bartolomé kept his word and married Juana. Bartolito was born, who died at 15, and then came José Bruno, who they called Pepe, who had one characteristic: he was dwarfish. I still remember him at family gatherings; he was charming.
Luis: -She had Pepe when she was 75. Bartolomé was already old.
In total, Bartolomé and Juana had six children. “María Rosa, Carlos’s grandmother, who married Green. María Teresa, my grandmother, who married Ortiz Basualdo. María Luisa, who married José Bustillo, the brother of architect Alejandro Bustillo… That couple had no children. Then came Bartolito, the son who died young; later Jeanette, the youngest of the daughters, who also had no children; and finally Pepe,” Luis lists. “All of this happened before 1920, when Bartolomé Devoto died.”
Carlos: -My hero.
For cousins Carlos and Luis, it's important to make clear that their family wasn't noble: "They weren't from the aristocracy: they were children of immigrants, working class. Later, some did marry into the Buenos Aires aristocracy... some. Clearly, that wasn't the case with Bartolomé," Luis asserts.
-What happened after Bartholomew's death?
Luis: When Juana inherited her husband's fortune, she said she didn't want to be a shareholder in the factory. What she wanted was to keep her agricultural and urban properties. They divided the inheritance, and with that, she built her new estate.
Carlos: She kept Estancias and Colonias Trenel, lands that the Devoto brothers had purchased. Some historians say it covered 300,000 hectares, others 400,000. The family used to say that Colonia Trenel was larger than Belgium. Juana was an elegant woman, very kind, and had tremendous business acumen.
According to family legend, Juana González, Bartolomé's wife, didn't have the best relationship with Elina Pombo, the wife of Antonio Devoto, her brother-in-law. "Elina thought she was a queen," they used to say sarcastically in the Bartolomé branch. The brothers, aware that the differences between their wives could complicate things later, made a practical decision: they preferred to avoid conflicts and divided their fortune during their lifetime. Since Antonio had no children, he kept the company shares, an estate that was easier to divide when the time came. Bartolomé, on the other hand, chose to keep the real estate: ranches, fields, and urban properties that would later shape the course of his descendants.
-What was Juana like?
Carlos: An extremely pious woman. She commissioned the church in Boedo, which she dedicated to Saint Bartholomew. She also donated the Rodríguez Peña family residence to Cardinal Copello so that it could house the Institute of Higher Religious Culture. She was always willing to help... perhaps because of her humble origins, she never forgot those who were less fortunate.
-How did the idea of building the Devoto Palace come about?
Luis: Juana inherited the estate in 1920 and immediately began building buildings on Santa Fe and Callao, and on Tucumán and Lavalle streets, a building that overlooks both streets, all rental buildings. In Paris, too. She prioritized rentals over luxury, which is why she commissioned construction. And this was the last building she commissioned.
Carlos: Furthermore, Juana was always obsessed with keeping the family together. With that in mind, she had built the villa in Villa Devoto and the family mansions in Paris and Mar del Plata. After being widowed in 1937, she commissioned Alejandro Bustillo, her trusted architect and relative—her son-in-law's brother—to build this residence on Avenida del Libertador. Her idea was for each of her children to live on a different floor.
The family moved in 1938, and Juana settled on the first floor. But she didn't get to enjoy it for long: she died just two years later, in 1940.
The Devoto Palace is located on Libertador Avenue, between Ugarteche and Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz streets, in the heart of Palermo. Its architect, Alejandro Bustillo, was the same one who designed the Llao Llao Hotel and the Banco Nación, and was very popular among the Buenos Aires elite of the time. "The San Eduardo Chapel, which is located on Llao Llao, was donated by Juana González de Devoto," Carlos adds.
The French Academic style building is distinguished by its elegant stone-clad facade, with marble details and materials specially imported from Europe. Each apartment, one per floor, was designed with the comfort and privacy of a home: it has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a private landing, an entrance hall, a spacious living room, a main dining room, a study, a private living room, a dining room, a separate kitchen, a laundry room, two service quarters and a nannies' quarters, a storage room, and a permanent garage. Each unit measures approximately 1,600 square meters.
-What was life like in the building?
Luis: Juana lived on the first floor. Carlos's grandmother was on the third, and mine on the fourth. She gave each of her children an apartment, even those who didn't have children... except for Pepe.
-Because?
Carlos: Pepe actually lived here for a while, but then he moved to a spectacular apartment on Libertador Street, past Salguero. He was a big partyer, he really liked women, and that really bothered his sisters. One day they told him: "Pepe, if you want to continue at your own pace, not here." He ended up marrying a woman named Carmen—they were very much in love, but they didn't have children—and he calmed down... (laughs) Before that, he was a tough guy. He traveled with Macoco Álzaga and another guy whose name I can't remember right now... and on one of those trips, the Folies Bergère closed. That was the level.
-And who moved into Pepe's apartment?
Carlos: That was the second floor. When Pepe left, it was rented to the Madanes family. Later, it went to my mother, and eventually, it ended up with me.
Luis: As they died, the apartments were redistributed. The woman who had married Bustillo moved to the first floor, Mrs. Green—who had three children—moved to the third... Ortiz Basualdo and Mrs. Devoto had eight children.
Carlos: And Jeanette kept the fifth one, which was recently reported to have been sold. And why did it sell for that price, when the others are worth almost double? Because it's half the square footage. The others are 1,600 square feet; this one is much smaller. It does have a huge terrace with a view of Colonia del Sacramento. It's a beauty. When she died, Silvita Green, a first cousin of mine, moved in. She settled there. My mother, who had married Méndez, opened an apartment on Cavia and Castex.
-What memories do you have of life at the Devoto Palace?
Carlos: We used to come here for lunch on Sundays. We often ate Cuban rice. The domestic staff were on the sixth floor, and there were also apartments on Ugarteche Street. A lot of people worked there.
“We, the Greens and the Ortiz Basualdos, are the only two lines directly descended from Bartolomé Devoto,” the cousins say almost in unison. Because for them, true legacy isn't measured in inheritances, but in what is passed on through sharing.
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