Pittamiglio Castle, Stately home in Punta Carretas, Montevideo, Uruguay

Pittamiglio Castle is a residential building with 23 towers and 54 rooms set along the Montevideo coast in Punta Carretas. The rooms connect through narrow corridors that create a maze-like layout blending medieval and Renaissance architectural styles.

Humberto Pittamiglio bought the land in 1910 in La Estacada, then owned by Francisco Piria, his mentor in architecture and alchemy. He kept building until his death in 1966, intending the work never to end. He left the castle to Willie Baker, who declined it, so it passed to the Montevideo municipality, which first housed the lifeguard brigade there.

The name Julia appears in Roman letters above a door, honoring Pittamiglio's mother, Julia Bonifacino. The wood paneling mixes Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts elements, and a Templar cross is hidden beneath a table in the circular room. A relief of the goddess Diana stands on the inner terrace behind the Tuscan-style tower.

Visitors enter through the rambla entrance at Rambla Mahatma Gandhi 633 and climb a staircase to reception; the main door on Francisco Vidal 638 now holds the Montecristo restaurant-museum. The route passes narrow corridors and stairs, and the original unrestored bathroom can be seen. Pittamiglio's old laboratory is today the restaurant's main wine cellar.

The Victory of Samothrace on the rambla facade, carved by Italian-Uruguayan sculptor Pedro Piccioli, is crowned by a coat of arms and stands for "the victory of life." The round brick tower beneath it ends in a lookout, and the rambla entrance at Mahatma Gandhi 633 did not exist when Pittamiglio built the house.