La Chascona, Pablo Neruda's house

You have crossed the Mapocho River and are in Bellavista, the neighbourhood at the foot of San Cristóbal Hill. Tucked away in this lane is La Chascona, one of the three houses of Pablo Neruda, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971.

1A house for a secret love

In 1953 Neruda bought this sloping plot. He was still married to Delia del Carril, and the house began as a refuge for his lover, the singer Matilde Urrutia. He named it La Chascona after Matilde's wild mane of red hair: in Chile, "chascona" means tousled.

The design was by the Catalan architect Germán Rodríguez Arias, although the poet kept meddling with the plans. That is why the house feels like a ship: narrow corridors, stairs, porthole-like windows and rooms on different levels. Neruda moved in here with Matilde in 1955.

2September 1973

Neruda died on 23 September 1973, twelve days after the military coup. His wake was held in this house, which had suffered damage, amid the fear of those days. Matilde lived here until her death in 1985 and took charge of repairing the house and saving the poet's legacy.

Today it is a house museum and home of the Pablo Neruda Foundation, with his collections of bottles, seashells, figureheads and objects from half the world.

3What to look for

• The blue colour of the facade, standing out on the hillside.
• The stone base that anchors the house to the slope.
• The cobbled lane, quiet just a few steps from busy Pío Nono.