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WHERE NATURE'S BEAUTIES HAVE BEEN RETAINED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SANTA LUCIA, SANTIAGO DE CHILE

And close beside is a specimen of modern engineering in the shape of the immense wall, which at this point supports the roadway

VOL. XXXVI

July, 1900

No. 211

THE SANTA LUCIA OF SANTIAGO DE CHILE

A HISTORIC PILE OF ROCKS WHICH, RISING FROM THE CENTER OF CHILE'S
CAPITAL, HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED INTO THE MOST PICTURESQUE

AND AT THE SAME TIME MOST NOVEL MUNICIPAL
PLEASURE GROUND IN THE WORLD

BY DOUGLAS WHITE

T IS four and a half centuries since Pedro Valdivia and his conquering army marching from the north entered the great valley which separates the higher and lower Cordilleras of central Chile. Following up the River Mapocho, this daring Spanish invader established his headquarters about midway in the plain where, strangely enough, Nature had constructed for him a citadel almost as easy of defense, as if the mind of man, filled with the ideas of war, had planned its construction. This citadel was in the form of an immense pile of rocks rising abruptly from the floor of the valley to a height of three hundred feet and filled with nooks, crannies, and defiles in which a vastly inferior force might bid defiance to the savage armies with which Valdivia had contended on his march from Peru.

The old campaigner saw at once the advantage of such a position. Pitching his camp between the rocky mount and the Rio Mapocho he stationed his outlooks on the summit of the rocky pile whence a view of the entire valley was commanded, and with little labor prepared the place for defense against the hordes of native warriors which he knew would swoop down upon him whenever he should attempt to make a stand in this country.

which he was attempting to bring, by force of arms, under the power of Spain. History tells how well Valdivia served his king and how in that same spot where his camp-fires gleamed beside the Mapocho, as it tumbles from the Cordillera to the sea, he founded in 1541 the city which is now the capital of South America's Lone Star Republic.

To this city Valdivia gave the name of Santiago, while to the rocky mount which became his Nature-constructed fortress, and where he so successfully withstood attack, against thousands of Indian warriors, the invader gave the name of Santa Lucia. From its base the town gradually crept out, in earliest times, hugging close to the grim rocks which would afford protection should the pueblo be attacked, but gradually, as time advanced, stretching its streets and avenues farther and farther away, yet always clinging to that rocky peak as the point which marked the center of the city's site. Generations piled up into centuries, and still the "Cerro Santa Lucia" stood, a grim reminder of the times agone, the peace which had fallen upon country rendering its usefulness as a place of refuge and defense a thing of the past.

the

Change followed change as the Santa

(Copyright, 1900, by OVERLAND MONTHLY PUBLISHING Co. All rights reserved.)

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General View of the Santa Lucia from the City of Santiago-Showing the Chapel Erected in Memory of Don Benjamin Vicuna Mackenna on the Brow
of the Mount, with the Principal Range of the Andes in the Distance

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Upper End of the Driveway on the Santa Lucia, Santiago de Chile-Showing the Theater at the End of the Drive

of man. Nature's most beautiful features were carefully preserved and between them were laid out gems of floriculture and picturesque bits of landscape-gardening which at every turn of the winding drives and walks are spread before the visitor in a series of increasing delights. At several points the roadways break suddenly from some rocky gorge upon a terrace upheld on the lower side with walls of rock, topped by castellated battlements, creating the idea that the carriage is being driven along the roof's edge on the summit of some feudal castle. There are several entrances for pedestrians to this odd. pleasure-ground, while carriages limited to one gateway which enters close by the Alameda, the principal avenue of the capital. At one of the entrances for pedestrians there is now in course of construction the most elaborate of all the bits of architecture which adorn the Santa

are

Lucia. This entrance is in the form of an immense arch approached from the street below by a broad stone staircase and opening toward the hill upon a beautifully bowered walk which leads toward the higher terraces.

The Chileans are not a people who yearn for labor of any sort, and for this reason the electric railway which is now taking the place of the antique trams in Santiago is being carried up and around the Santa Lucia to a terminus near the upper or most important of the terraces. To the people of any nation which takes even a minimum of delight in exercise of any kind, the introduction of an electric line within the limits of a place of recreation so novel and picturesque as the Santa Lucia would seem a desecration, but not so to the Chileno, who, it is estimated, will visit the Santa Lucia with four times his former frequency when he can reach the

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