Chile’s New Immigrant Museum Stands Amid 19th Century Churches And Cemeteries
VALPARAÍSO, Chile – A new immigrant museum near the 19th-century Anglican and Lutheran churches and Catholic and Protestant cemeteries plans to become the center of cultural life on Valparaíso’s most visited attraction, Cerro Concepción. The former German School of Valparaíso is undergoing a renovation to become the Museo del Inmigrante, or Immigrant Museum.
Built in different stages by the German community of Valparaíso, the school operated from 1870 to 1985, when an 8.0-magnitude earthquake damaged the building. Students began attending classes at the German School in the neighboring city of Viña del Mar, leaving the building for good. In 2016, local businessman Eduardo Dib acquired the property, which had been declared a historical monument by Chile’s National Monuments Council.
Surrounded by restaurants, bars and shops, the museum will be part of a cultural space called Destino Valparaíso (Destination Valparaíso in English).
“We want to be the central square of the hill,” Dib said of the space, which he plans to inaugurate in March or April.
The son of a Lebanese father and the grandson of Syrian immigrants on his mother’s side, Dib said he is fascinated by the story of the immigrants who came to Valparaíso in the 19th and 20th century.
“They gave a face to a city that is unique in the world,” he added.
Valparaíso is known for its hills and winding streets that look out over the Pacific Ocean as if they were part of an amphitheater.
At the beginning of the independence process from Spain, the First Government Junta declared freedom of trade for the ports of Valparaíso, Talcahuano, Coquimbo and Valdivia in 1811. This opening in Valparaíso triggered an immigration process that peaked during the second half of the 19th century. The city became a hub for British, Germans, Italians, French, Spanish and Arabs. Valparaíso was a vibrant center, home to the country’s first banks and stock exchange.
In 1823, the British and Germans began to build a cemetery that was later called Dissidents Cemetery, because it was the only place in Chile where Protestants could be buried when there was no religious freedom. It is adjacent to two Catholic cemeteries, built in 1825 and 1845. The three of them are in today’s Panteón hill, half a mile from Cerro Concepción, where the British and German settled.
“We have a connection with our cemeteries. (The museum has) the best view of the cemeteries. And there is history there. I like going to those cemeteries,” said Dib.
The museum will recreate the lives of the foreigners who came to Valparaíso. In the part related to British and German immigrants, there will be a mention of their churches and cemetery, said Felipe Ovalle, who is in charge of museography.
“We want the museum to be an experience of what immigrants lived through,” he said.
In Cerro Concepción, the British built an Anglican church, St. Paul’s, in 1858 and the Germans built a Lutheran church, The Holy Cross, in 1897. Both churches are steps away from the former German School.
English engineer William Henry Lloyd, who had come to Chile to build railway bridges, erected St. Paul’s. Because of the lack of religious freedom in Chile, the building had to be discreet. It had small windows and no main door. It also had no spire, cross or bell tower on the outside so the building would seem like just one more house in Cerro Concepción. St. Paul’s was the first Anglican church in Chile and in the west coast of South America. In 1979 the Chilean government declared St. Paul’s a historical monument. In 2016 it became a cathedral.
Built in a neo-Gothic style with a single nave, the church covers a surface of 5,415 square feet (503 meters). Lloyd employed avant-garde techniques by using laminated Oregon pine beams attached with nails and screws to form the ceiling arches. The building has a choir and a chancel separated by a rood screen from the nave. It also has a baptistery with three stained glass windows behind.
St. Paul’s registries show that seamen, merchants, masons, piano builders, shipbuilders, musicians, smiths, candle makers, artists and engineers were among those who attended the church in the 19th century, according to its website.
The Holy Cross was the first Protestant church with a bell tower in South America. The architects were the Bliederhäuser brothers, who also built the oldest part of the German School and the Municipal Theater in the city of Iquique, in northern Chile.
Built at times of more religious freedom, the church stands out in Valparaíso as an architectural and religious icon. It has a central nave 46-foot (13 meters) high and another lateral nave with a second floor above it. The second floor has an organ built by Forster and Andrews in England in 1884. Following the ancient liturgical tradition, the altar is oriented towards the east, which allows the entry of the sun’s rays through the stained glass window of the apse. The church’s decoration was hand-carved in Oregon pine following the European neo-Gothic style of the 19th century. Its 377-foot (115 meter) bell tower can be seen from other hills in the city.
Most of the German School’s students were Lutheran, said Hildegund Fischer, 88, the daughter of two German immigrants who arrived in Valparaíso in the early 1930s.
“The church was almost part of the school,” she said.
Fischer said she was happy to hear the school building would become a museum.
“It would have been a shame if the building, with such a long history, had been demolished,” she said.
You can read this story in Spanish here.
Graciela Ibáñez is a journalist with a Master of Arts from Columbia Journalism School, where she graduated in 2008. She works as a professor of journalism at Universidad Gabriela Mistral and at Universidad Viña del Mar in Chile. She is a freelance reporter covering Chile for foreign media outlets, including TRT World. She worked as a reporter for Dow Jones Newswires in Santiago and for the Financial Times Group in New York City. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Viña del Mar, where she lives.