Plaza de Armas de Santiago
Founding-era main square flanked by a cathedral, courts, and colonial government buildings.
Location
About this audio guide
In Santiago's Plaza de Armas, this guide follows the fotógrafos minuteros, itinerant portrait photographers who spent a century developing strangers' pictures inside a simple wooden box a few steps from the cathedral. It traces the tradition from an 1859 photograph by Eugène Maunoury through a 2006 count of the country's last surviving practitioners. Look for the men still crouched under black cloths at the edges of the square, boxes propped on three splayed legs.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Correo Central Building
French-style former palace turned postal headquarters, crowned by a black cupola facing a historic city square.
Paseo Phillips
Pedestrian passage of matching nineteen-twenties buildings, once home to a pioneering hand-cranked Otis elevator.
Museum of National History of Chile
Neoclassical former royal courthouse on the main square, rebuilt after earthquakes flattened two predecessors.
Museo de Santiago - Casa Colorada
Deep-red colonial mansion where Chile's first governing junta president lived and resigned royal power.
Barrio Yungay
Historic republican-era district of cobbled streets and heritage houses turned bars, workshops and restaurants.
Metropolitan Cathedral of Santiago
Fifth cathedral on its site, rebuilt after fire and earthquakes with a neoclassical stone facade and gilded baroque interior.