The Edificio José Miguel Carrera is the headquarters of the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, located in the Civic District of

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

, facing the Plaza de la Constitución. It was formerly the historic Hotel Carrera, until 2004.

History

The Hotel Carrera was named for Chilean founder José Miguel Carrera and was designed in the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

style by architects Josué Smith Solar and José Smith Miller, as part of the creation of a Civic District centered around La Moneda Palace. Opened in 1940, it was one of the first multi-story buildings constructed from

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

in Chile. The 17-story hotel had two basement levels and a rooftop

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming and associated activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built abo ...

. Its famous guests included Queen Elizabeth II and

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

. Intercontinental Hotels managed the hotel from January 1, 1950 to 1960. Hilton Hotels leased the hotel on January 1, 1961, and it became their first property in South America. Sheraton Hotels assumed management of the property in 1969, and operated it until 1978 as the Carerra-Sheraton Hotel. During the

1973 Chilean coup d'état The 1973 Chilean coup d'état () was a military overthrow of the democratic socialist president of Chile Salvador Allende and his Popular Unity (Chile), Popular Unity coalition government. Allende, who has been described as the first Marxist ...

, the hotel's terrace roof and its windows were used by foreign journalists to record the bombing of La Moneda Palace. Much of the 1982 film '' Missing'' is set in the hotel during this time, through the movie was actually filmed in Mexico City, with the Gran Hotel Ciudad de México standing in as the Carrera's interior and the Hotel Fiesta Americana Reforma standing in as its exterior. The hotel closed permanently in 2004. The structure was remodeled and reopened in 2005 as an office building, renamed Edificio José Miguel Carrera, housing the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile.

References

{{coord, display=title Buildings and structures in Santiago, Chile Hotel buildings completed in 1940 Hotels established in 1940 Defunct hotels