Palacio Pereira

This guide to Palacio Pereira in Santiago counts the eleven separate plans that tried, between 1981 and 2009, to sell, subdivide or demolish this cross-shaped mansion, including one that would have reduced it to a single wall behind a 23-story tower. It traces architect Lucien Hénault's original 1873 design, its cast-iron cross-shaped gallery, and the decades of abandonment and squatting that followed. It also follows the state's 2011 purchase and the international competition that decided its restoration. Listen for what era each patch of brick and plaster around you actually belongs to.