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Estación Mapocho

cultural center in Santiago, Chile

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ5400037
Source-derived summary

Estación Mapocho is a former railway station that has been refitted as a cultural center since 1994, hosting a variety of events in Santiago, Chile.

History

The design and construction of the station began in 1905 at the hands of Emilio Jecquier, a Chilean architect based in France. The 280-metre-long, 17-metre-high structure was composed of a base of masonry and a steel vault covered in glass (now copper). The steel structure was constructed by the Belgian company Haine Saint Pierre. The official inauguration of the station took place on May 12, 1912, and the station opened to the public in 1913.

In many ways, Estación Mapocho is a relic of a significant period in Chilean history when the country was going through major economic and social changes, as well as celebrating its first centenary. The station was one of several civil works commissioned to celebrate the first centenary of Chilean independence, along with the park of Santa Lucía Hill, the Chilean High Court of Justice, and the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts. The building is located at the intersection of two streets, Presidente Balmaceda and Bandera, on the south bank of the Mapocho River close to the Mercado Central de Santiago. Puente Cal y Canto metro station is beneath the "Plaza de la Cultura", or Culture Square, in front of the station.

For many years, Estación Mapocho was Santiago's main rail hub serving Valparaíso, Argentina and northern Chile, which at the time was the centre of Chile's niter or saltpeter boom.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Estación Mapocho” as cultural center in Santiago, Chile. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Estación, Mapocho and cultural.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1994, 1905, 1912, 1913—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1913. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Estación, Mapocho and cultural providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Estación Mapocho”, the useful work is to connect “cultural center in Santiago, Chile” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5400037. VIAF identifies the subject as 136871423. The Library of Congress control number is no2005019691. Authority coordinates are -33.432, -70.655. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1994, 1905, 1912 and 1913.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Estación Mapocho”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Estación Mapocho primary sources, Estación Mapocho archive and Estación research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Estación Mapocho”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Estación Mapocho” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.