Santa Lucía Hill (), also known in

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 ...

as Huelén Hill (), is a small hill in the centre of

Santiago, Chile 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 ...

. It is situated between Alameda del Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins in the south, Santa Lucía Street in the west and Victoria Subercaseaux on the east. An adjacent metro station is named after it. The hill has an altitude of 629 m and a height of 69 m over the surrounding area. The hill is the remnant of a volcano 15 million years old. The hill comprises a 65,300 square metre park adorned with ornate facades, stairways and fountains. At the highest point there is a viewpoint popular with tourists visiting the city and meeting point.

History

It was originally called Huelito o heutrecan by the pre-colonization inhabitants. However, the current name comes from the day in which

Pedro de Valdivia Pedro Gutiérrez de Valdivia or Valdiva (; April 17, 1497 – December 25, 1553) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' and the first royal governor of Chile. After having served with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders, he was sent to South America in ...

conquered the hill, on December 13, 1540. That day celebrates " Santa Lucía." Its first use by its missionaries was as a point of worship, or prayer in the years of the chicken pox outbreak (1541). In 1816, Manuel Olaguer Feliú, the

Brigadier Brigadier ( ) is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore (rank), commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several t ...

of the Royal Engineers, designed and built two

forts A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from ...

castles A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This i ...

on Santa Lucía Hill, one north and the other south of the hill. The forts were built out of stone and lime and could fit eight or twelve

cannon A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during th ...

s each. Besides, Olaguer Feliú drew and built an outbuilding for ammunition depot and to house the garrison. On one side of the hill, Fort Hidalgo was finished in 1820 as a defensive point. On the other side, the hillside terrain was used as a "cemetery for the dissidents", people who did not follow the then-official Roman Catholic faith, or were considered otherwise unworthy of burial at hallowed grounds. However, the remains buried in the hillside under this fashion were eventually transferred to a secluded section of the General Cemetery, before said cemetery, in turn, was opened to all burials regardless of creed or social condition. In 1849 James Melville Gilliss led an American naval astronomical expedition to Chile in order to more precisely measure the solar parallax. An observatory was set up on Santa Lucía Hill and operated by Gilliss. When the expedition ended in September 1852 the observatory and related equipment was sold to the Chilean government and formed the nucleus of the first National Astronomical Observatory. In 1872 Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna decided to conduct a dramatic change to the urban atmosphere of the city of Santiago, among his many works aimed to improve the city, and thus initiated an extensive remodelation of the hill. The works of 1872 consisted of a road which crossed the hill, which at the top accessed a chapel which he also built there, illuminated by the then-novel means of gas. The rest of the hill contains a park with fountains and lookouts. The actual hill is watered by a sophisticated irrigation system. The now iconic yellow and white facade is also a product of Vicuña Mackenna's remodelation. Vicuña Mackenna was assisted in realizing his designs by the architect Manuel Aldunate, the constructor Enrique Henes, and the stonecutter Andrés Staimbuck. A few years ago, Santa Lucía hill received an improvement in its illumination system and protections. Also, Fort Hidalgo was restored and reopened to the public. Traditionally, a cannon shot is fired exactly at noon.

Curiosity

Located in Santa Lucía Hill there is a monument which consists of a 2 m high stone carved with a paragraph extracted from the text that

sent to

emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

Charles V Charles V may refer to: Kings and Emperors * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise Others * Charles V, Duke ...

describing the features of the new land conquered.

In popular culture

Santa Lucía Hill is one of the entrances to the abyss in the videogame Abyss Odyssey, the entrance is located in the east part of the Terraza Neptuno. Santa Lucía Hill was featured on the second episode of '' The Amazing Race 7'' with the competing teams finishing their leg in Santiago at Terraza Neptuno. The eighth season of the Israeli version of ''The Amazing Race'' also finished its sixth leg at Terraza Neptuno.

Inside Santa Lucía Hill

Image:Cerro Santa Lucía (9488519903).jpg, Neptune Fountain. Image:Chile-03808 - Chapel of the Cerro Santa Lucia (49039212476).jpg, Hermitage of the Cerro Santa Lucía. Image:SAN-VAL-VDM-11 (26421907472).jpg, Views from Santa Lucía. Image:Vista Panoramica Plaza Pedro de Valdivia.jpg, Outlook of the

square. Image:Pedro de Valdivia Monumento.jpg, Monument of

Image:Manuel Vicuña Larrain.jpg, Monument of archbishop Manuel Vicuña Larrain. Image:Monumento a los protestantes ateos y suicidas.jpg, Monument dedicated, in turn, to "those disowned both by Heaven and Earth, buried here for half a century", and to Protestants in particular, "buried here for their faith in Christ". Image:Nombre Fundadores de la ciudad de Santiago.jpg, A list with the name of people who founded the city of Santiago during the first ''cabildo abierto''.

References

External links

The Singular Santiago, Lastarria Hotel

View Panoramic 360° of Cerro Santa Lucía , Flip360
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Lucia Hill Geography of Santiago, Chile Hills of Chile Parks in Santiago, Chile National Monuments of Chile Landforms of Santiago Metropolitan Region