Valparaíso, “World Heritage Site” and the cultural capital of Chile, gives us this opportunity to provide you with a new tour, where we can delve into the city’s daily life, art galleries and its architectural heritage allowing us to have a better understanding of the city’s history.

 

The tour starts along “Brasil” street where there is an imposing monument to the British Colony of Valparaíso and then “Gran Bretaña” street where examples of early Twentieth Century British influenced architecture can be seen. A visit is made to the “21 de Mayo” view point with its excellent vistas of the port and across the whole bay. We will use the “Artillería” elevator from the “21 de Mayo” view point to descend to “Plaza” Wheelwright square from where we will take one of the city’s traditional electric trolleybuses through the financial district to “Plaza” Victoria square.

 

Close to Victoria Square is the “Espíritu Santo” elevator which we will ride up to visit the Open Air Museum of Valparaíso and then on to visit the “La Sebastiana” museum house of Chile’s Nobel Poet, Pablo Neruda. From here we go to the “Plaza” San Luis square from where we will explore “Cerro Concepción” on foot, with its 19th Century architecture like the St. Paul’s and Lutheran churches, and the Paseo Atkinson alleyway with its famous Brighton Restaurant. We walk across to “Cerro Alegre” along the Paseo Gervasoni alleyway where the famous Café Turri and the house of the cartoonist Lukas are located.

A number of other traditional alleyways will be walked to cross to Cerro Alegre to see “Paseo Yugoslavo” and the Baburitza Palace with another amazing view of the bay, before descending to the “Plaza Sotomayor” via the “El Peral” elevator to see the monument to the Chilean Pacific War heroes, Prat, Serrano, Condell and others. Here it is also worth seeing the old “Intendencia” administrative building and the old Hotel Victoria, both famous for their architectural styles. Close by there is also the “Matriz” church, the current building being the third re-build of a church on the site since 1837. We will also visit the Prat Pier to see the small port activity. A visit is also made to the Plaza Aníbal Pinto square where there are a number of galleries and workshops of well known local artists and craftsmen as well as some famous traditional cafés such the “Riquet” and the “Bar Cinzano”.