Valparaíso - World Cultural Heritage

On July 2nd 2003, Valparaíso was declared a part of World Cultural Heritage by the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO). It was also named as the cultural capital of Chile on May 6th of the same year. The privilege of this designation as part of World Heritage implies official universal recognition that the city is of value to the whole of humanity for its historical, artistic, cultural, aesthetic, archeological and anthropological qualities.

Valparaíso is known as the "Jewel of the Pacific", a natural amphitheater with which architects, poets, painters, sketchers, musicians and many others have fallen in love, succumbing to the charms of this colorful cultural landscape beside the sea.

On a trip round Valparaíso we can enjoy the Muelle Prat, the point of entry and departure for the maritime traffic of the port with its constant movement of shipping; the Barrio del Puerto, with its handicrafts and fish, and the faces of seamen from every corner of the world; Santo Domingo, called the heart of the port, the oldest and most picturesque part of the city; the Iglesia La Matriz, an architectural treasure surrounded by picturesque alleys.

The great number of cerros (hills), Concepción, Alegre, Artillería, Barón, Cordillera, etc., which comprise a great center of attraction and give the city its characteristic form; Plaza Sotomayor, Plaza Echaurren and a number of others, displays of living history.

The Concepción, Barón, Artillería, Reina Victoria and Polanco ascensores, important elements of public transport; the paseos and viewpoints from which the traveler may admire the panorama of the city in all its splendor, and many other attractions which make Valparaíso truly worthy of the title with which it has been honored.

Valparaíso, with its position facing the sea, is not a city like any other, for its buildings go hand in hand with the dreams from which it arose; the streets are alive, and are more than mere routes for commercial traffic or means of transport. This is a city charged with magnetism and color, which was not founded by but born out of its people.

Valparaíso is a cultural landscape, an open-air museum, a cultural and artistic space for the whole country, where the past fuses with the future; it is the fruit of immigration and inheritance, bathed in the warm sensuality of its port.

We invite you not just to visit this city as a sightseer, but to wrap yourself in its magic, to fall in love with Valparaíso, the Jewel of the Pacific.