1912-1987
A Railway Stations Visual Memory

At the beginning of the 20th Century Chile was getting ready to celebrate its first one hundred years of Independence, creating a climate of high expectations at national level, the sense of reaching civic maturity and the imperative need to express such joy in a festive way.

At the beginning of the 20th Century Chile was getting ready to celebrate its first one hundred years of Independence, creating a climate of high expectations at national level, the sense of reaching civic maturity and the imperative need to express such joy in a festive way.

It was a historic moment for the country and very significant for Santiago, -the city that would concentrate the Centennial commemoration- whose impulse was to change the urban lifestyle, putting the best efforts to improve the city, embellish its surroundings, make its streets safe, build civil works, and improve its infrastructure.

This idea, plus the certainty that Santiago -main stage of the country because of the social transformation produced by the boom of niter- needed a new railway station, was the motor starting the project to build such train terminal in 1905, under the government of the President, Pedro Montt.

Entrusted to the Chilean architect settled down in France, Emilio Jecquier, its imposing beauty and neoclassic style were the seal of Estación Mapocho, the most important one and offering the best connectivity in the country.

Located in the historic Barrio, main point for trade and civic encounter, the Railway Station expanded the horizon for Chilean people. Distant places were reachable from it; crossing over the desert to the city of Iquique, and also the frontier using the Ferrocarril Trasandino, to arrive in Mendoza and Buenos Aires.
Hundreds of thousands of people had the experience of travelling, finding someone and saying good bye in this station, keeping in their memories the picture of the building that became part of their lives, history, and personal and collective culture. Estación Mapocho stopped working in 1987, being abandoned and in disuse.