El Peral Funicular to Queen Victoria Elevator

Summary: For tourists with limited time in Valparaíso, this is the walk you want to take. The Pleasant Hill and Concepción National Historic Districts constitute one of the most stunning and breathtaking cultural heritage sites in the world. The neighborhoods are well preserved and tourists friendly.

Estimated walking time: 90 minutes to 2 hours.
How to get here: By car you can follow the main routes into downtown Valparaíso, leaving your car in the underground parking below the Plaza Sotomayor. By bus or trolley, board any vehicle marked “Aduana” and get off the Plaza Sotomayor, walking 100 meters to the El Peral Funicular in the Justice Square.

Degree of difficulty: There is a slight climb up Miramar Street from the Yugoslavian Promenade to Lautaro Rosas Street. The rest is flat or downtown hill. You may need to catch your breath, but in general, this is an accessible walk for healthy people for all age.
Tourist infrastructure: Plenty. In Pleasant Hill, the Colombina is one of Valparaíso’s finest hillside restaurants with a lovely terrace and a fine wine list. In Concepción Hill, the Café Turri is well known and the Brighton Bed & Breakfast has one of the most spectacular hanging terraces in the city –ideal for meals, snacks, coffee, wine or a refreshing pisco sour. In general, any of the major restaurants will allow tourists to use the bathrooms as long as they don’t abuse the privilege. There are now several smaller cafés and restaurants, several of which may be worth stopping in to. On weekends, the French lunch at the Le Filou de Montpelier (Almirante Montt Street with Urriola) is one of the best bargains in all of Valparaíso. As for lodging, the Brighton is the best known, but you will also find a plethora of B & Bs and charming family-owned apartments for rent. The Tomas Somerscales Hotel is due to open in 2004.

The Justice Square. Natalislang's Office Location in Valparaíso

The section begins in Justice several feet away from the Plaza Sotomayor. If this is the only section of the walk, you may want to detain yourself for a few minutes in Sotomayor Square, the most important civic square in Valparaíso. More detailed information on the plaza, its buildings, and its institutions, is discussed in section 14 of this guide. The plaza extends naturally of the Prat Pier where massive commercial ships mix with tiny schooners. Local residents feeding the pigeons, mill with international cruise passengers buying curios in gift shop. In the center of Sotomayor Square is the impressive Monument to the Martyrs of the Battle of Iquique, the famous military battle the defined the future of Chile and sealed the fate of Bolivia and Perú. In 1879, Chile had been attacked by a confederation made up of its two northern neighbors, initiating the War of the Pacific. During a key battle, a Chilean wooden schooner named the Esmeralda was given the impossible task of stalling an iron Peruvian battleship called the Huascar in the northern port of Iquique until reinforcements could make it up from Valparaíso. It was a suicide mission. The heroism of the crew of the Esmeralda, led by Arturo Prat, turned the tide of the war and enabled Chile to annex from Perú and Bolivia the northern deserts that have generated most of the countries mineral wealth for the past 130 years. Sotomayor Square is built upon landfill and represents a significant archeological site. During recent excavations, workers uncovered the wooden dock of the first Prat Pier, dating to the mid-19th century. Other artifacts included ships ballast, old anchors, cannons, and pieces of shipwrecks, all gathered in an archeological museum housed beneath the plaza. Small tiles built into the plaza indicated where the shoreline was at different times in the city’s history. Returning to the Justice Building, we may be surprised at the curious statue of Lady Justice. While most courthouses feature a Lady Justice blindfolded and weighing the scales of truth, Valparaíso’s statue features Lady Justice with her eyes unobstructed and her scales dismantled. Legend tells that the sculptor was unhappy with a verdict involving his family. Other theories include the idea that the statue was a joke that never was corrected.

The Peral Funicular

Past the stately Interoceanica Building, you will find an opening that accesses the Peral Funicular, gateway to the Pleasant Hill National Historic District. Built in 1902, the upper station house was recently rebuilt and inaugurated in 2000. As the principal entry point into the Pleasant Hill (Cerro Alegre) National Historic District. This is one of the busiest elevators in Valparaíso. At the top, you enter the Yugoslavian Promenade. This is one of Valparaíso’s five most characteristic promenades, offering a spectacular view of the port, banking district, and neighboring hillsides. The dominating feature of this park is the outstanding Baburriza Palace, now the city’s fine arts museum. Pascual Baburriza was a Croatian immigrant who arrived in Chile to sell fish in the nitrate fields of Northern Chile. A classic entrepreneur, he expanded his enterprise, ultimately controlling thirty percent of the world’s nitrate market, later diversifying into railroads. Luckily, Baburriza sold his nitrate stock to the American Multinational Guggenheim Brothers just before the industry fell out during Word War I. Baburriza’s fortune was unscathed. Baburriza had two principal properties in this region: his Valparaíso palace and his summer estate twenty minutes to the interior. The latter has since been restored and donated as Chile’s national botanical gardens, worth a visit in its own right.

Baburriza Palace

This beautiful structure was built in 1916 by the Zanelli family and was designed by the Italian architects Barrison and Schiavon, who immigrated to Valparaíso seeking restoration work after the earthquake of 1906. Specialists in Arte Noveau, these beloved architects left behind a priceless legacy encompassing many classic buildings and homes in Valparaíso. But it was the Baburriza Palace where they found their true voice and style. Once the building was completed, the Zanelli family brought in the finest parquet, marble, and furnishings from Europe. Baburriza, sitting on a fortune after getting out of the saltpeter industry just in the nick of time, bought the palace in 1925. As an art museum, the collection features Chile’s finest collection of European painters.

Plazoleta Joaquin Edwards Bello

Although may consider the park next to the promenade to be an extension of the esplanade, it is actually called the Plaza Joaquín Edwards Bello, named after a beloved writers who immortalized Valparaíso in texts such as Valparaíso, the Windy City and The Old Almond Grove. Next to the plaza you’ll find the fine Colombina Restaurant, actually situated in the old servant’s headquarters of the Baburriza Estate. The stairway off to the left is called Apollo Passage, and features several attractive buildings. If you head down this stair, cross the street at the bottom, and climb the stair on the other side, you can short cut your way ahead to Concepción Hill. But we wouldn’t recommend it; you miss too much spectacular scenery.

Miramar Street

The trail continues to the cobblestone alley called Miramar Street, which opens up to some of the most stunning urban landscapes in all of Chile and, perhaps, Latin America. At the first cross street, visitors can stop to snap pictures of the “cruise ship house,” a classic example of Valparaíso corner architecture. Many people like to compare Valparaíso with San Francisco, but this curious intersection illustrates many of the differences between the two cities. San Francisco, for all its charm, is nonetheless a grid pattern city. Valparaíso, on the other hand, is a rabbit’s warren of organic urban development, where streets sinuously carve their way through the ravines. In such a world, the architecture must adapt itself to cling to unusual spaces left by the irregular curves. Many of Valparaíso’s most outstanding architectures masterpieces are those built on irregular intersections such as this one. To the left of the cruise ship house, you’ll find another oddity: The Bavestrello Passage, basically a public stairway that cuts through a private building. This curiosity illustrates another one of Valparaíso’s urban attributes. Other Chilean cities were built off a Spanish central plan and the roads were built by the government. In Valparaíso, the city was founded without a central plan and the principal alleys, stairways, promenades and streets were actually edified by the people who lived there.
Continuing up sloping Miramar Street, past lush Mediterranean vegetation prospering on the hillsides, you will come upon an exquisitely restored apartment complex on your right. Formally a finishing school for English girls, the house had been completely abandoned only to be recently restored in recent years.

Lautaro Rosa Street

Widely considered the most chic address in Pleasant Hill, Lautaro Rosas gives a nice idea about the quality of life for many of immigrant families living here between 1860 and 1930. Many of the houses on the left side of the street, like the finishing school, were restored by a single individual: a young German engineer who worked for the World Bank and lived in Valparaíso in the late 80’s and 90’s. Lautaro Rosas also features a nice art gallery, the Villa Toscana Convention Center, the Balmaceda 1215 cultural organization, and a Swedish restaurant.

Templeman Street

On a sunny day, one could easily spend hours strolling around the back streets of Pleasant Hill, but if you want to keep on track, we recommend you follow the route as it descends the stairway known as Templeman Street. As you cross Urriola Street you leave Pleasant Hill. The house o the left corner of Templeman and Urriola was used for a famous Chilean movie called “The Moon and the Mirror.” The route turns left on Urriola Street for about 100 meters and then enters an opening on the right called the Templeman Passage: a world inside a world.

The Galvez Passage

The most singular aspect of the Concepción Hill National Historic District is this unique system of interconnecting alleys. Following the signs through this zigzagging heart of Valparaíso, you are sure to become convinced that Valparaíso is as unique a place as exists anywhere in the world. Eventually you will come upon the Tomás Somerscales Hotel, with its restaurant El Mesón de Jorge. You will also find an Italian restaurant called Puerto Escondido. In front of the main entry to the hotel and restaurant, the alley culminates in a short stairway. The trail leads up the stair and takes a sharp turn to the left. You are now entering the Gervasoni Promenade, one of the most romantic vantage points for observing the bustle of the city.

Gervasoni Promenade and Café Turri

In addition to a romantic air and breathtaking views, The Gernasoni Promenade has four principal attractions, The Foundation Lukas, a house that was the first Danish Consulate in Latin America, The Concepción Funicular and the Café Turri. The Lukas Foundation is dedicated to Renzo Pecchenino, a beloved Italian immigrant who served for years as the caricature artist for El Mercurio newspaper. Known professionally as Lukas, Pecchenino was a brilliant artist who dedicated his life to drawing Valparaíso as it must have appeared during different periods of the city’s 480-year history. His excellent technique, poignant sense of humor, gregarious charm, and eccentric personality has led Chileans to identify Lukas as a genius of almost Neruda-like stature. A copy of Lukas’s drawings of Valparaíso, Apuntes Porteños can be purchased at the museum and makes an excellent souvenir to remember your visit to Valparaíso.
The Middle house of the promenade was the first Danish consulate in Latin America, opened in 1848. Across the street, the Concepción Elevator welcomes visitors up from the heart of the financial district. This is the oldest funicular in town, built in 1883, and makes an excellent detour, since the banking district below has much outstanding architecture of its own right, including the emblematic Turri Clock. At the end of the promenade, the Café Turri has been receiving happy tourist for almost 15 years. This was Valparaíso’s first hillside restaurant. Its owner, Raúl Alcazar, has been a proponent of the rebirth of Valparaíso fighting for the city against enormous odds. If you aren’t hungry, the terrace is ideal for a cup of java or a bottle of fine Chilean wine.

Atkinson Promenade

Our route continues along Papudo Street and the juts to the left to enter into the Atkinson Promenade, one of Valparaíso’s most splendid and surprising esplanades. The Atkinson Promenade is named after Juan Atkinson, a ship builder who built the homes here. By 1886, all of the homes were occupied and the neighborhood gained fame as an excellent place for an afternoon stroll. The great poet Rubén Darío, rumored to have rented the last house on the street, described the place in his book Album of the Port. The houses were occupied by German and British families, including the Eltons, the Boyes, and one of the city’s finest architects, Alfred Vargas, who built the Valparaíso Theater and Couve Gallery in Viña del Mar. The houses on Atkinson Street have not changed much, though the horrendous Student Solidarity Bank Building, built in the late 60’s, stole away much of the ocean view that made the promenade famous. At the end of the promenade, an iron railing offers an excellent vantage point to observe the Aníbal Pinto Square, with its pondering Neptune statue meditating in front of the Café Riquet, the last of Valparaíso’s great old cafes. Precisely in this space, the now extinct Esmeralda Funicular efficiently connected the promenade to the plaza. The elevator was damaged beyond repair in the 1985 earthquake. Today only the stone foundations remain.

Brighton Bed & Breakfast

The last house on the Atkinson Promenade is the charming Brighton Bed & Breakfast, rebuilt from recycled materials in 1996 by a Dutch immigrant, Case Tijmons and the architect Raul Haivar, who has been present in many noteworthy restorations in recent years. The house was purchased half-finished by Nelson Morgado, an architect who lived many years in Barcelona. Nelson had the idea of converting the advantage of one of the most splendid terrace in all of Chile. It didn’t take long for the tiny hotel, which boats seven small rooms, to become an icon. Live tango and boleros on weekends make the Brighton an excellent alternative for visiting romantics. Nelson Morgado, an active civic leader who has defended the Valparaíso renaissance in good and bad times, is also the owner of the Vila Toscana Conference Center in Lautaro Rosas Street.

Lutheran and Anglican Churches

A slender passage, named after German Minister Pastor Schmidt, connects the Atkinson Promenade with the attractive Lutheran church. Built in 1898, this is the most significant Lutheran church in all of Chile, providing spiritual support to the large Germanic population in Valparaíso during the early 19th century. Architecturally, the church favors a dignified austerity that compliments the religion’s belief in simple meditation over gaudy ornamentation. Nonetheless, the woodwork is splendid and the wooden Christ, sculpted by the German artist Peter Honre, is worth a look. The church’s bell tower makes a reference point when gazing upon Concepción Hill from the cemeteries or from the Dimalow Promenade, later in the route.
Our path now follows Abtao Street toward St. Paul’s, the Anglican Church of Valparaíso, and the German School. The preeminence of many British families in Valparaíso created certain problems for the Catholic aristocracy in the early 19th century. At the time, to avoid standing out, many Anglicans preferred to celebrate their religious rites in the homes of Pleasant Hill. In 1857, the British Consul, William Rouse, began organizing raffles to buy the land where St. Paul’s now stands. The Archdiocese of Valparaíso approved the building of a church of a competing faith, only after significant haggling and pressure. One of the most curious preconditions was that the doors of the Anglican Church should be smaller than the doors in Catholic churches. For this reason, St. Paul’s has no main entryway. To this day, the only way to enter the church is through two small doors on the sides. Although the church was built in 1858, the law didn’t recognize it officially until 1869. Nonetheless it is considered to be the first Anglican Church of the South Pacific coast of Latin America. The architect was William Lloyd, who came to Chile to build the Santiago to Valparaíso railroad. The spectacular pipe organ, donated to honor the visit of Queen Victoria, was built by Craig Christie. Pipe organ concerts are given every Sunday at 12:30.
St. Paul’s exquisite woodwork offers a world class acoustical experience. The church is used for choral concerts and occasional operettas. On the far side of the church is the “Walkway of the fourteen benches,” for the fourteen stone benches carved into the walls. In the old days, it was essential for each ethnic group in Valparaíso to have its own school. The British had the Mckay School in Pleasant Hill, and the Italians the Scuolla Italiana downtown. The handsome German School, across the street from St. Paul’s, was founded in 1857 and is officially the second oldest German high school in the world outside Germany. Several years ago, the school was moved toward a section of Viña del Mar. The old campus is rented to another school and possesses a fantastic auditorium which reflects the greatest influences of the Belle Epoque in Valparaíso.
In this section, the route also crosses the Music School of the Catholic University of Valparaíso, and the Pierre Loti Passage, named after the French novelist who spent time in Valparaíso. At the corner of Urriola Street, we find a small soda fountain called “Le Fillou de Montpellier.” Opened by a young immigrant from France, this tiny restaurant is famous for its inexpensive French lunches offered exclusively on weekends.

Dimalow Promenade

We enter the almost imperceptible Dimalow Promenade across from the bakery and Le Fillou de Montpellier. Like many of Valparaíso’s promenades, the stroll initiates with a series of attractive homes overlooking the ocean. Nonetheless, as we approach the midway point of the esplanade, we begin to note that something about this street is different. At the end of the alley, we find ourselves in one of the most spectacular vantage points imaginable. Standing in front of the Queen Victoria Funicular, the promontory of Concepción Hill, with the spectacular steeple of the Lutheran church, is exposed to view. Take a deep breath and enjoy this outstanding photo opportunity. This is the end of section 3. For those of you who want to double back to your standing point, you may ride down this elevator and walk one block down Cumming Street to the tiny Aníbal Plaza Square. This is the beginning of section 14, which makes a perfect circle of the historic quarter, taking you back to Sotomayor Square (beginning of section 3) or all the way to Echaurren Square and the beginning of section 2.