Antofagasta Historic Center: Plaza Colón, the British Clocktower, the Portales Waterfront, and the Nitrate Era Architecture
Antofagasta's historic center route covers Plaza Colón as the most architecturally distinctive single civic square in the Norte Grande featuring a replica of London's Big Ben donated by British residents, the Portales waterfront as the most scenic single coastal promenade in northern Chile, the historic train station as the most impressive single railway heritage building in the Atacama, and the nitrate era commercial buildings as the most intact single example of British-influenced industrial port city architecture in South America.
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Plaza Colón: The British Clocktower Square
Plaza Colón in central Antofagasta, named for Christopher Columbus and dominated by the replica Big Ben clocktower donated to the city by British residents in 1910, is the most architecturally distinctive single civic square in the Norte Grande and the clearest single visual statement of the British commercial dominance that shaped Antofagasta's development from 1870 onward through the copper and nitrate export trade. The clocktower, a one-fifth scale replica of the Westminster Palace tower built by the local British community, stands in the most historically significant single public space in the city and creates the most culturally incongruous single landmark in the Chilean Atacama.
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Portales Waterfront: The Pacific Promenade
The Portales waterfront promenade extending along the Antofagasta bay shore is the most scenically pleasant single coastal walkway in northern Chile, combining Pacific Ocean views, the container port infrastructure, the historic customs building, and the fish market in the most varied single coastal urban experience available between Iquique and La Serena. The evening sunset colors over the Pacific visible from the Portales promenade, the pelican and sea lion congregation at the fishing pier, and the seafood restaurants along the waterfront create the most atmospherically complete single coastal evening in the Norte Grande.
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Historic Train Station: The FCAB Railway Heritage
The Antofagasta historic train station (Estación de Ferrocarriles), built in 1872 by the Antofagasta and Bolivia Railway Company (FCAB) as the Pacific terminus of the most commercially significant single railway line in the Atacama Desert, is the most architecturally imposing single railway heritage building in northern Chile, combining Victorian Italianate brickwork with the most dramatically scaled single arched entrance portal surviving from the nineteenth-century railway boom in South America. The station building now housing the Museo Regional de Antofagasta with the most complete single collection of nitrate-era railway artifacts in Chile.
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Ruinas de Huanchaca: The Silver Refinery Ruins
The Ruinas de Huanchaca, the 1888 Bolivian silver smelting facility ruins on the clifftop above the Antofagasta southern waterfront, are the most architecturally remarkable single industrial ruins in northern Chile, preserving the massive brick walls of the most technologically sophisticated single precious metal processing plant in nineteenth-century South America in the most dramatically cliff-edge position of any industrial ruin in the Atacama. The Fundación Ruinas de Huanchaca cultural center within the ruins and the Museo del Desierto natural history museum constitute the most culturally layered single heritage site in Antofagasta.
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Mercado Central: The Port City Food Market
The Mercado Central de Antofagasta in the historic center is the most authentic single food market in the Norte Grande metropolitan area, combining the freshest single Humboldt Current seafood stalls with the most diverse single selection of Atacama highland produce, Bolivian imported goods, and Chilean staples in the most culturally mixed single market environment in northern Chile. The market restaurants serving the most generous single fish lunches in Antofagasta, the fresh juice stalls using the most tropical fruit varieties available in any Chilean desert market, and the artisan food stalls create the most gastronomically complete single market experience in the region.
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Barrio Histórico: The British Commercial Quarter
The Barrio Histórico of central Antofagasta preserving the Victorian commercial buildings along Calle Prat, the former main commercial street of the British-dominated nitrate port era, contains the most complete single surviving assemblage of late nineteenth-century British-influenced commercial architecture in South America, with the most intact single series of two-story brick and rendered commercial facades from the 1880-1920 copper and nitrate boom in the most compact single heritage block grouping in the Norte Grande. The converted buildings now housing restaurants, galleries, and the most historically conscious single bar culture in Antofagasta.
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More in Antofagasta
Chuquicamata and Calama: The World's Largest Open-Pit Copper Mine, the Mining City, and the Atacama Industrial Heritage
Atacama Desert Interior: Valle de la Luna, the Salar de Atacama, the Flamingo Lagoons, and the Pre-Andean Desert Landscape
Antofagasta Food Culture: Caleta Coloso Fishing Harbor, the Norte Grande Seafood Tradition, the Port City Market, and the Mining Camp Cuisine
Southern Antofagasta Region: Taltal Historic Port, Paposo Nature Reserve, the Coastal Desert Fog Zone, and the Atacama Southern Wilderness
Paranal Observatory: The VLT, the World's Most Powerful Optical Telescope, the Residencia, and the E-ELT Construction Site
