The Casa Matriz del Banco de Chile is a building in downtown

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, which houses the headquarters of the

Banco de Chile Banco de Chile ( en, Bank of Chile), is a Chilean bank and financial services company with headquarters in Santiago. It is a commercial bank that provides a range of financial services to a client base. As of December 31, 2012, Banco de Chile ha ...

. It is located at 251

Paseo Ahumada Paseo Ahumada is four-block-long street in downtown Santiago. It extends in a north–south direction from Plaza de Armas to the Avenida Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins and is lined by buildings housing retail establishments at their lower ...

street, between Huérfanos y Agustinas streets. The building was declared as a National Monument of Chile in 2016, within the category of Historic Monuments.

History

The Banco de Valparaíso, the Banco Nacional de Chile and the Banco Agrícola were merged in 1893 under the name of Banco de Chile. Its original headquarters in Santiago was located on Huérfanos Street, on land originally owned by the Arzobispado de Santiago. In 1909, the architects Alberto Cruz Montt and Ricardo Larraín Bravo were commissioned to make a preliminary design of the facade of the new building, and in 1919 an open competition was launched by the bank for its construction, which was won by

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n Alberto Siegel. The construction of the building began in 1921 and was inaugurated on April 6, 1926. The building, an example of the

Beaux-Arts architecture Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorp ...

style, features a large central hall and well-designed circulation spaces. It is known for being the first structural metal framed building in Chile to be plastered with concrete. The previous metal buildings in the country were featured for having architecturally exposed metal structures. The building features four above-ground stories and two basement levels housing an exhibition room. The first floor is 1.6 m higher than the street level, and on the main facade: doors and windows of the first floor are topped by semi-circular arches, the second floor features curve-pedimented windows and the third and fourth floors feature plain rectangular windows. Columns of classical order give the building its monumental character. The decorative

ironwork Ironwork is any weapon, artwork, utensil, or architectural feature made of iron, especially one used for decoration. There are two main types of ironwork: wrought iron and cast iron. While the use of iron dates as far back as 4000BC, it was the ...

details of the building were manufactured by "Mina Hnos. Ltda.", a company which also manufactured ironwork for the Club de la Unión, the Palacio Ariztía and the building housing the Banco Central.

References

{{coord, -33.4402, -70.6505, type:landmark_region:CL, display=title Buildings and structures in Santiago Baroque Revival architecture in Chile Architecture in Chile