The Tower by Schuiten and Peeters

Beautiful, wonderful. A fascinating story about a mysterious tower. The story reminded me of The Tower of Babylon by Ted Chiang if only for all the climbing the protagonist has to do.

The authors explain The Tower was inspired by Giovanni Battista Piranesi's work, and others such as Bruegel, Paracelsus and Kafka. Actually the protagonist name is Giovani Battista and its design was based in Orson Well's image. The authors relate how they met with Wells to show him their work.