Sights in Santiago
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Palacio de la Moneda
Chile’s presidential offices are in the Palacio de la Moneda. The ornate neoclassical building was designed by Italian architect Joaquín Toesca in the late 18th century, and was originally the official mint – its name means ‘the coin.’ The north facade was badly damaged by air-force missile attacks during the 1973 military coup when President Salvador Allende – who refused to leave – was overthrown here. A monument honoring Allende now stands opposite in Plaza de la Constitución. Shiny-booted carabineros (police) stamp through a brief changing-of-the-guard ceremony every other day at 10am.
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Cerro San Cristóbal
Smog permitting, the best views over Santiago are from the peaks and viewpoints of the Parque Metropolitano, better known as Cerro San Cristóbal. At 722 ha, the park is Santiago’s biggest green space, but it’s still decidedly urban: cable cars and a funicular carry you between different landscaped sections, and roads through it are aimed at cars rather than hikers. The park lies north of Bellavista and Providencia and has entrances in both neighborhoods: the cheapest and most logical way to visit is to buy a joint cable car and funicular ticket (adult/child one way CH$2500/1500) to start on one side and finish on the other.
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La Chascona
When poet Pablo Neruda needed a secret hideaway to spend time with his mistress Matilde Urrutia, he built La Chascona, which he named for her unruly hair. Neruda loved the sea (but disliked sailing) so the dining room is modeled on a ship’s cabin and the living room on a lighthouse. Guided tours walk you through the history of the building and the collection of colored glass, shells, furniture and artworks by famous friends that fills it – sadly much more was lost when the house was ransacked during the dictatorship. The Fundación Neruda, which maintains Neruda’s houses, has its headquarters here and runs a swank gift shop and lovely café.
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Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino
Exquisite pottery from most major pre-Colombian cultures is the backbone of Santiago’s best museum, the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino. As well as dozens of intricately molded anthropomorphic vessels, star exhibits include hefty Mayan stone stele and a fascinating Andean textile display. More unusual are the wooden vomit spatulas used by Amazonian shamans before taking psychoactive powders. Note that though Sunday admission is free, groups of two or more are pressed into a ‘voluntary’ contribution.
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Iglesia de San Francisco
The first stone of the austere Iglesia de San Francisco was laid in 1586, making it Santiago’s oldest surviving colonial building. Its sturdy walls have weathered some powerful earthquakes, although the current clock tower, finished in 1857, is the fourth. On the main altar look for the carving of the Virgen del Socorro (Our Lady of Perpetual Help), which Santiago’s founder Pedro de Valdivia brought to Chile on his 1540 conquistador mission to protect him from attacks.
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Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende
Picasso, Miró, Tápies and Matta are some of the artistic heavyweights who gave works to the Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende. Begun as a populist art initiative during Allende’s presidency – and named in his honor – the incredible collection was taken abroad during the dictatorship, where it became a symbol of Chilean resistance. The 2000 works finally found a home in 2006, when the Fundación Allende bought and remodeled this grand old townhouse. The permanent collection sometimes goes on tour and is replaced by temporary exhibitions, and there’s a darkened room with an eerie display of Allende’s personal effects. Guided tours visit the basement, where you can s…
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Parque por la Paz
During Chile’s last dictatorship some 4500 political prisoners were tortured and 266 were executed at Villa Grimaldi by the now-disbanded DINA (National Intelligence Directorate). The compound was razed to conceal evidence in the last days of Pinochet’s dictatorship, but since the return of democracy it has been turned into a powerful memorial park known as Parque por la Paz. Each element of the park symbolizes one aspect of the atrocities that went on there and visits here are fascinating but harrowing – be sensitive about taking pictures as other visitors may be former detainees or family members. Take the yellow bus D09 (you need a Bip! card) from right outside t…
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Museo de Artes Visuales
Exposed concrete, stripped wood and glass are the materials local architect Cristián Undurraga chose for the stunningly simple Museo de Artes Visuales. The contents of the four open-plan galleries are as winsome as the building: top-notch modern engravings, sculptures, paintings and photography form the regularly changing temporary exhibitions. Admission includes the Museo Arqueológico de Santiago, tucked away on the top floor. The low-lighted room with dark stone walls and floors makes an atmospheric backdrop for a small but quality collection of Diaguita, San Pedro and Molle ceramics, Mapuche jewelry and Easter Island carvings.
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Cerro Santa Lucía
Rising out of the eastern side of the Centro is Cerro Santa Lucía. It was a rocky hill until 19th-century city mayor Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna had it transformed into a beautifully landscaped park where the grassy verges are still a favorite with canoodling local couples. A web of trails and steep stone stairs leads you up through terraces to the Torre Mirador at the top. Charles Darwin proclaimed the view from here ‘certainly most striking’ in 1833 – the smog-and-skyscraper-filled 21st-century version may have changed a little but it’s still well worth the climb. You need to sign in with your passport details when you enter.
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Museo Histórico Nacional
Colonial furniture, weapons, paintings, historical objects and models chart Chile’s colonial and republican history at the Museo Histórico Nacional. After a perfunctory nod to pre-Colombian culture, the ground floor covers the conquest and colony. Upstairs goes from independence through Chile’s industrial revolution right up to the 1973 military coup but no further – Allende’s broken glasses are the chilling final exhibit. The Spanish-only explanations are only helpful if you’ve taken Chilean History 101, but English versions of the texts sell for CH$100 at the ticket counter.
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Cementerio General
More than just a graveyard, Santiago’s Cementerio General is a veritable city of tombs, many adorned with works by famous local sculptors. The names above the crypts read like a who’s who of Chilean history: its most tumultuous moments are attested to by Salvador Allende’s tomb and the Memorial del Detenido Desaparecido y del Ejecutado Político, a memorial to the ‘disappeared’ of Pinochet’s dictatorship. To reach the memorial from the main entrance, walk down Av Lima, turning right into Horvitz for another 200m; it’s over the bridge to the right.
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funicular
The quickest way to the summit of Cerro San Cristóbal (Parque Metropoltano) is the funicular , which climbs 284m from Plaza Caupolicán at the north end of Pío Nono. It stops halfway up at the dinky Zoológico Nacional , which houses an aging bunch of neglected animals. It is, however, probably the only place in Chile where you are assured a glimpse of the dinky pudú deer, Chile's national animal. Near the top of the funicular is the Terraza Bellavistawhere there are extraordinary views across the city.
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Palacio Cousiño
‘Flaunt it’ seems to have been the main idea behind the shockingly lavish Palacio Cousiño. It was built between 1870 and 1878 by the prominent Cousiño-Goyenechea family after they’d amassed a huge fortune from wine-making and coal and silver mining, and it’s a fascinating glimpse of how Chile’s 19th-century elite lived. Carrara marble columns, a half-ton Bohemian crystal chandelier, Chinese cherrywood furniture, solid gold cutlery, and the first electrical fittings in Chile are just some of the ways they found to fritter away their fortune.
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Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda
Underground art takes on a new meaning in Santiago’s newest cultural space: the Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda is beneath Plaza de la Ciudadanía. A glass-slab roof floods the vaultlike space with natural light, and ramps wind down through the central atrium past the Cineteca Nacional, a state-run art-house movie theater, to two large temporary exhibition spaces. The uppermost level contains a fair-trade crafts shop, a café and a gallery celebrating Chilean folk singer, artist and activist Violeta Parra.
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Plaza de Armas
Since the city’s founding in 1541, the Plaza de Armas has been its symbolic heart. In colonial times a gallows was the square’s grisly centerpiece; today it’s a fountain celebrating libertador (liberator) Simón Bolívar, shaded by more than a hundred Chilean palm trees. Parallel pedestrian precincts Paseo Ahumada and Paseo Estado disgorge scores of strolling Santiaguinos onto the square on weekends and sunny weekday afternoons: clowns, helium-balloon sellers and snack stands keep them entertained.
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Museo Colonial de San Francisco
Alongside Iglesia de San Francisco is the Museo Colonial de San Francisco. The dark and dusty rooms contain 17th-century colonial ecclesiastical art, as well as a creepy collection of whips and scourges used for penitential self-flagellation. A small room is rather randomly dedicated to poet Gabriela Mistral and includes correspondence and a replica of her Nobel medal. What the staff are most proud of, however, is their pet chicken, Martín, who patrols the palm- and creeper-filled courtyard.
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Centro Cultural Matucana 100
Halfway between Parque Quinta Normal and the Alameda lies one of Santiago's hippest alternative arts venues. The huge red-brick Centro Cultural Matucana 100 gets its gritty industrial look from its previous incarnation as government warehouses. Renovated as part of Chile's bicentennial project, it now contains a hangarlike gallery and a theater for art-house film cycles, concerts and fringe productions.
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Museo de Ciencia y Tecnología
In the middle of Parque Quinta Normal there's an artificial lagoon where you can rent rowboats. Beyond the lagoon is the Museo de Ciencia y Tecnología, which has interactive exhibits on astronomy, geology and other aspects of science and technology.
Other museums in the park include the Museo Infantil and the open-air Parque Museo Ferroviario, which displays lovingly maintained steam locomotives.
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Estación Mapocho
Rail services north once left from Estación Mapocho. Earthquake damage and the decay of the rail system led to its closure, but it's been reincarnated as a cultural center which hosts art exhibitions, major concerts and trade expos. The soaring cast-iron structure of the main hall was built in France then assembled in Santiago behind its golden beaux arts–style stone facade.
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Templo Votivo de Maipú
Set on the site of the battle where Chile finally repelled the Spanish in 1818, this impressive modern templo votivo de maipú is a replacement for the earthquake-felled original, the ruins of which you can still see today. Completed in 1974, the temple looks stark from the outside, but the huge arched ceilings and tranquility are awe-inspiring within.
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Museo de Arte Contemporáneo
Temporary exhibitions showcasing contemporary photography, design, sculpture, installations and web art are often held at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo. Its pristine galleries are the result of extensive restoration work to reverse fire and earthquake damage. Twentieth-century Chilean painting forms the bulk of the permanent collection.
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Casa Colorada
Few colonial houses are still standing in Santiago, but the simple, oxblood-colored Casa Colorada is a happy exception, although only the front half of the original 18th-century building has survived. It contains a small, under-resourced branch of the municipal tourist office and the sweetly amateurish Museo de Santiago.
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Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
An excellent permanent collection of Chilean art fills the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, on the eastern side of Palacio de Bellas Artes. Look out for works by Luis Vargas Rosas, erstwhile director of the museum and a member of the Abstraction Creation group, along with fellow Chilean Roberto Matta, whose work is also well represented.
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Museo Arqueológico de Santiago
Admission to the Museo de Artes Visuales includes the Museo Arqueológico de Santiago, tucked away on the top floor. The low-lighted room with dark stone walls and floors makes an atmospheric backdrop for a small but quality collection of Diaguita, San Pedro and Molle ceramics, Mapuche jewelry and Easter Island carvings.
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Museo de la Moda
The slick set-up comprises an exquisite permanent collection of western clothing – 20th-century designers are particularly well represented – and, more unusually, tennis wear. From Escuela Militar metro, take bus 305 from the west side of Américo Vespucio (you need a Bip! card) and get off at the intersection with Av Vitacura.
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