San Cristóbal Hill (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

: ,

Mapuche The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...

: ) is a hill in northern

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 ...

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. It rises 880 m

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and about 300 m above the rest of Santiago; the peak is the third highest point in the city, after Cerro Manquehue and Cerro Renca. Cerro San Cristóbal was named by the Spanish

conquistadors Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

for St Christopher, in recognition of its use as a landmark. Its original indigenous name is ''Tupahue''.

History and attractions

Cerro San Cristóbal began to be used in 1903 with the installation of the Mills Observatory, currently known as the

Manuel Foster Observatory The , or Manuel Foster Observatory, is an astronomical observatory constructed on Cerro San Cristóbal near Santiago, Chile in 1903. This site was originally known as the D. O. Mills Observatory after the philanthropist Darius Ogden Mills. It was ...

, twin of the

Lick Observatory The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of California. It is on the summit of Mount Hamilton (California), Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, United States. The ...

of the

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. On its summit there is a

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred space, sacred place, such as a shrine, protected by ecclesiastical immunity. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This seconda ...

dedicated to the

Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Mariology, Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Debated by medieval theologians, it was not def ...

, with a 22-meter statue of the

Blessed Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

, an amphitheater and a chapel. The statue of the Immaculate Conception measures 14 meters tall, and the pedestal on which it rests is 8.3 meters in height. It weighs 36,610 kilograms. Within the pedestal there is a small chapel in which

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 ...

prayed and blessed the city of Santiago on April 1, 1987. The statue is lit up at night by lights placed on its sides, allowing it to be viewed from all over Santiago both day and night. At the foot of the statue there is an amphitheater for holding masses or other religious ceremonies. Near the statue, there is also a small chapel for praying. At the foothills of Cerro San Cristóbal are the Chilean National Zoo and a Japanese-style garden, and up there are also two municipal pools, ''Tupahue'' and ''Antilén''. Cerro San Cristóbal houses Santiago's largest public park: the Santiago Metropolitan Park (''Parque Metropolitano'').

Access

The summit of Cerro San Cristóbal can be reached by foot (about a 45-minute walk, involving a 300m change in elevation), by car via the road joining the Santiago Metropolitan Park, by the Funicular de Santiago (the base of which sits next to the Zoo at the North end of Pio Nono in Barrio Bellavista), or by a Teleferico (cable car located northeast at the Oasis station). A cable car provided service to the top of the hill from the Pedro de Valdivia entrance since 1980 until 2009, when the gearbox controlling the system's speed exploded, leaving the system unusable. A project was presented in 2011 to open for tender on the system, giving it new cabins and restore infrastructure. The service was expected to be back in 2012, however the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning received only one offer that was rejected, so the tender was ended and a new public contest was announced, that began in 2013.
Then, in December 2014 it was announced that the cable car would re-open in the second semester of 2016 after a series of maintenance and remodeling works to be done from March 2015, costing US$9.5 million. These works complete the installation of the new 46 cabin network, of which 8 will be enabled for the transport of bicycles, strollers or wheelchairs. The transport cabins have a 6-person capacity and the system was reopened in November 2016. From the top of the hill are two pools – Tupahue and Antilén, and access the National Zoo of Chile at the Bellavista entrance to Cerro San Cristóbal. The Children's Park of Cerro San Cristóbal also provides entrance to the hill via Avenida Perú.Casi 16 mil personas han visitado el Parque de la Infancia del cerro San Cristóbal a dos semanas de su apertura
Ministerio de Vivienda y Urbanismo. 11 May 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2012.

References

External links

*
Virtual Tour on 360° of San Cristobal Hill
Chilexplora.com
Photographs of Mills Observatory from the Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive, UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:San Cristobal Hill Geography of Santiago, Chile Hills of Chile Tourist attractions in Santiago, Chile Landforms of Santiago Metropolitan Region