Panoramic view and national identity: two of Santiago de Chile's public spaces in the second half of the nineteenth century

Abstract

This article shows how the panorama, as a modern form of visualization and representation, became a model for the Santa Lucia Hill and the Cousiño Park, two emblematic projects of Santiago's transformation, carried out by Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna between 1872 and 1875. On the one hand, supported by the height and location of the hill and its pattern of paths and terraces, the Santa Lucia promenade became an effective mechanism for visual control of the city as a whole, as well as a reference to the new urban order that was to be imposed. On the other hand, by proposing a landscape design that served as an urban window into Santiago's geographical surroundings, the Cousiño Park project interpreted the qualities of the panorama from a strongly local sensitivity that highlighted the values of life in contact with nature. The analysis of these two cases will show how the panorama remarkably influenced Santiago's first transformation in the republican era, while representing fundamental values of the emerging national identity.