La Moneda Palace

Before you is La Moneda Palace, the seat of the Chilean government. Its name, meaning "the Mint", is no metaphor: it was built to strike the coins of the Spanish colony.

1A palace for minting silver

It was designed by the Roman architect Joaquín Toesca, a pupil of Sabatini, who had arrived in Santiago in 1780 to finish the cathedral. Work began in 1786 with walls more than a metre thick, meant to withstand earthquakes. Toesca died in 1799 without seeing it finished, and the building opened in 1805, with parts still incomplete.

In 1846 President Manuel Bulnes moved the government and the presidential residence here from the Plaza de Armas. For decades palace and mint shared the building: the coining furnaces did not leave until 1929.

211 September 1973

During the military coup, the palace was attacked by tanks and bombed by Air Force Hawker Hunter jets. President Salvador Allende died inside. The fire destroyed entire rooms and documents such as the Declaration of Independence. Restoration lasted until 1981.

The side door at Morandé 80, the traditional presidential entrance, was sealed during the reconstruction and reopened in 2003, thirty years after the coup.

3What to look for

• Toesca's north facade, with its central portico and wrought-iron grilles.
• The statue of Salvador Allende by Arturo Hevia, unveiled in 2000.
• The Carabineros changing of the guard, if you happen to catch the ceremony in the square.