Houses seem piled on one another, stretching up to the sky. The bizarre landscape makes for some peculiar architecture with small one-storey buildings revealing themselves to be rambling villas hidden by the slope of the hill. The city’s nineteenth century architecture bears witness to the mix of British, German and Italian families who settled during its golden age.
On the memorably-named Gran Bretaña avenue, high above the port, large villas of Douglas fir once housed the port´s richest families who enjoyed glorious views across the bay.
But years of decline have taken their toll on Valparaiso and visitors may be shocked at the dilapidated state of parts of the city. Some buildings seem little more than oversized shacks, their corrugated iron walls, streaked with rust. Although much is being done to renovate the city, especially in its historic heart, its run-down condition is also part of its melancholy charm that so many visitors appreciate, giving it the appearance of a ghost town which never actually got round to dying.
Unlike most cities in the Americas, Valparaiso was never formerly founded. As such it grew up organically, creating a labyrinth of roads that wind with the hills and impossibly steep staircases that may shave minutes off your journey but take years off your life.
The only compromise that the inhabitants of Valparaiso appear to make with the topography is the dozen or so funiculars scattered through out the city. Built in the late nineteenth century to link the port with residential districts being built ever further up the hillsides, these often-noisy contraptions remain an integral part of the city’s infrastructure, transporting locals each day between home and work.
Down the hill from the Artillery Funicular lies the Plaza Echaurren, the heart of the old city. The leafy square buzzes with typical characters from Chilean life. Knife-sharpeners exchange gossip with pavement spice vendors and organ grinders. Some of the shops on the square, such as Emporio Echaurren, have gone unchanged in decades, providing delicacies and fine wines to a faithful clientele even though the fortunes of the neighbourhood have declined
A couple of blocks back stands the De La Matriz church, built just a few years after the original Spanish conquerors settled in the area. The original church was sacked by English corsair Sir Francis Drake, but the current building, rebuilt in neo-classical style after one of the many earthquakes that have rocked the city, still contains a sixteenth century sculpture of an unusually morose and almost naked Christ, a gift from the Spanish crown.
Rise and fall
Although first settled in colonial times, for its first three centuries Valparaiso was little more than a sleepy fishing village, home to barely 7,000 souls at the time of independence. The determination of the Spanish rulers to keep a tight grip on trade with the Americas ensured the town did not prosper.
Only after independence when the country’s first government passed a law permitting foreigners to settle at selected towns did the development of Valparaiso take off, having been added to the list as an after-thought behind other larger ports.
This stroke of the pen, however, was to revolutionise the city. Strategically located half-way up the Chilean coast and close to the capital Santiago, the port was soon drawing in large numbers of European sailors, merchants and adventurers keen to prosper in the fledging republic’s growing economy.
At first business centred on the export of raw materials like copper and later nitrates to Europe and imports of manufactured goods. But the discovery of gold in California in 1848 gave another boost to the city´s fortunes, transforming it into a major transfer point for goods and people now moving round Cape Horn between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The increase in trade required banks, markets and other services. In the financial district on Prat street, visitors can see monuments to the influence that El Mercurio de Valparaiso newspaper, still controlled by the Edwards Eastman family claims to be the world´s longest running Spanish language newspaper, while across the street the city’s stock exchange was the first in Latin America.
So vigorous was Valparaiso´s economy at the turn of the last century that when a major earthquake wrecked huge swathes of the city in 1906, much was rebuilt within a couple of years. And the reclaiming of the sea to create what is today the city’s financial district was at the time one of the world’s largest engineering projects, attracting manpower and talent from all over the world and burying over a dozen shipwrecks beneath streets, banks and offices.
The end of the boom, however, lay just around the corner. The opening of the Panama Canal sounded the death-knell for Valparaiso´s glory days. As goods no longer had to make the long and dangerous trip around South America’s southern tip, the trade-dependent city began a slow decline that continued until recent times.
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…and rise again
The heart of Valparaiso´s recent resurgence is Cerro Concepción (easily reached via the Concepción funicular on Prat street, opposite the Turri clock tower). As well as architectural wonders like the Baburizza Palace (see box) and vistas such as that from the Atkinson Passage, the district is abuzz with new bars, restaurants, hostels and craft-shops eager to make good on Valparaiso´s promise of being Chile´s cultural capital.
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The Café Literario, on Almirante Montt Street, is one such place. As well as an array of delicious homemade sandwiches, soups and salads, the bar has a large range of books for clients to peruse while a notice board offers samba classes, storytelling sessions and walking tours of the city. Further down the road, the bright orange Brighton Hotel is one of Valparaiso´s landmarks where diners can enjoy excellent Chilean seafood and live Latin music at weekends.
But there is no escaping Valparasio´s past. The next hill across from the Brighton is dominated by the city´s 150-year old dissidents cemetery where generations of settlers are buried. Spurned from official cemeteries for not following the Catholic faith, the authority designated a plot of land where the city´s increasingly powerful circles of protestant British and German families could find their final resting-place. Celtic crosses mix with Gothic script against the stunning backdrop of Cerro Concepción to produce a sad and elegant testimony to the generations of settlers who briefly made Valparaiso one of the most dynamic cities on Earth.
An American in Valpo
Arriving in Valparaiso in the early 1990s, Temkin says that the unique atmosphere of his new hometown struck him immediately. Winding passageways and clanking, wooden elevators lead visitors round a city steeped with the influences of the British, German and Italian immigrants who settled in the city from the early nineteenth century onwards.
“They built the city and left their heritage here,” Temkins explains, “Valparaiso is by far and away the most interesting city that Chile has – architecturally, historically, urbanistically and on many other levels.”
And beyond the city´s physical setting and architecture, Temkin argues that the place with a special atmosphere, a product of its history, people, culture and art, that weaves a maudlin spell over visitors and causes many to put down permanent roots.“Valparaiso emanates an invisible narcotic that unless you live here is difficult to explain,” he says. But finding the city on the brink of collapse following decades of economic decline and neglect, the poet set himself the goal of raising its profile, both at home and abroad. So eight years ago, Temkin founded the Valparaiso Foundation (www.fundacionvalparaiso.cl).
The aim, he says, was to develop the city’s cultural and tourist potential, taking on projects “that fall between the responsibilities of the private and public sectors and try to fill in the blanks.”
One of the not-for-profit organisation’s early landmark projects was the repainting of twenty-three traditional houses on Cerro Bellavista by design students from a local university.
The foundation is now involved in thirty or so projects, “a remarkable number for such a small organisation,” covering heritage, culture, education and tourism.
For instance, the Bicentennial Walks booklet (also available online at www.senderobicentenario.cl) sets out fifteen fascinating paths for visitors to follow, guiding them round the nooks and crannies of historic Valparaiso, pointing out important landmarks and buildings, the events that happenedthere and the people who lived in them.
Or Opera at the Sea (www.operaenelmar.cl), a summer opera festival, based around the Deutsche Haus, a nineteenth century theatre in the heart of UNESCO’s World Heritage district. Just three years old, Temkin believes the festival could soon rival the Frutillar music week as Chile’s largest classical music event.
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At its headquarters, in a renovated multi-storey house on Bellavista hill, the foundation also provides space for a small number of craft workers and runs the El Gato Tuerto (The One-Eyed Cat), today one of the city´s best-known restaurants.
The organisation, with Temkin at the helm, is widely credited with helping to turn around opinion about Valparaiso and its future development, not just among foreign visitors but with Chileans themselves, especially among Santiago-based opinion formers and decision makers.
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“Ten or eleven years ago, Valparaiso was looked down upon and underestimated by many Chileans,” he notes. The fact that santiaguinos today make up the majority visitors to the foundation is a source of pride to Temkin.
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A remarkably important Pacific port in the late nineteenth century, the city went into rapid decline with the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. Its loss of position as Chile´s main port in the 1990s threatened to put the final nails in the coffin. But a number of projects and campaigners, Temkins among them, helped raise the profile of Valparaiso´s historic and cultural potential. The city´s cause was taken up by the government of former President Ricardo Lagos, who Temkin praises for making unique subsidies and tax breaks available for the restoration of Valparaiso´s historic centre. The president also moved the offices of the Culture Ministry to the port and officially decreed Valparaiso Chile´s City of Culture. Lagos´s intervention was also crucial for the city´s successful bid for UNESCO World Heritage status, granted in 2004.
Before that, “many Chileans did not believe that the application for World Heritage was for real, they thought it was a bluff,” Temkin admits. Now exciting times now lie ahead. A loan from the Inter-American Development Bank has made US$75 million available to City Hall for the redevelopment of historic Cerro Concepción district covered by the UNESCO status. Private money is also coming into the city. The hills ring with the sound of construction work as once rundown houses are renovated into apartments and small hotels with stunning views across the bay.
“The government now sees that this is a gold mine that can be exploited,” notes Temkin. Encouraging more tourists and more investment in the city could have a significant impact in one of Chile´s most economically depressed regions.
But Temkin and others are concerned that care is taken to preserve the Valparaiso´s unique heritage and not to see the city transformed into a giant theme park.
Plans by one of the country´s big supermarket chains to open a branch just meters from the historic De La Matriz church has raised howls of protest from locals although the company has promised to design the new store in harmony with the historic architecture that will surround it.
But despite such hiccups, Temkin is confident that Valparaiso´s best days are ahead of it.
“Everyone knows the city is on the verge of something big –all the elements are there – the question is just when,” the poet gleams.
