Free Walking Tour Santiago de Chile: 11 Stops, 5.2 km

Walking Santiago de Chile Stop by Stop, Five Centuries in One Morning

1. 1

   Plaza de Armas

   

   This is where Santiago begins. The Plaza de Armas is the city's main square, and the buildings around it read like a list of who has held power here: the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Central Post Office, the Palacio de la Real Audiencia and the seat of the city government, once home to the colonial Cabildo. Look also for the Capilla del Sagrario, the Archbishop's Palace, the Edificio Comercial Edwards and the Portal Fernández Concha.

   Pedro de Valdivia founded the city in 1541, and Pedro de Gamboa, whom Valdivia appointed, laid it out as a chequerboard, block after block like a chess board, with this square at the centre and the main administrative buildings around it. The church facing the plaza was the anchor of the whole grid, and you'll come back to it near the end of the walk.

   What lies underneath is the more intriguing story. In 1976 the researchers Rubén Stehberg and Gonzalo Sotomayor argued that the Spanish city sits on top of an Inca settlement: an urban centre of the Tawantinsuyu, the Inca Empire, from which roads ran out in several directions and which lived from irrigated farming and gold and silver mining. If they are right, Valdivia did not found his city on empty land but used what was already there.

   The square, the nearby former National Congress building and the surrounding buildings have been protected together as a zona típica since 1986. The Casa Colorada, the headquarters of the Santiago fire brigade and the Precolombino museum are all a short walk away. From here it is 590 m, about 8 minutes, to the Mercado Central de Santiago.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Plaza de Armas on Google Maps ↗

2. 2

   Mercado Central de Santiago

   

   The Mercado Central de Santiago is a working food market, mainly fish and seafood, and the building is as much the attraction as the stalls. It replaced the old Plaza de Abastos, which burned down in 1864. Construction began in 1869, and the market opened on 23 August 1872.

   Look up. The square hall is covered by a central iron structure designed by Edward Woods and Charles Henry Driver and cast in Glasgow by the engineering firm Messrs Laidlaw & Sons. Around it runs a brick perimeter designed by the urban planner Manuel Aldunate y Avaria, and the architect Fermín Vivaceta oversaw the construction. Scottish iron inside a Chilean brick shell: you are standing in a piece of nineteenth century engineering.

   It opened during the National Exhibition of Arts and Industries organised by Santiago's intendant Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna, a name you'll meet again at the end of the tour. Since then the market has kept changing: a second brick ring in 1884, electric light and informal stalls in 1900, the north front demolished between 1927 and 1930 to widen Ismael Valdés Vergara street, and a restoration by the city in 1983. It was declared a Historic Monument in 1984, and in 2012 National Geographic named it the fifth best market in the world.

   Entry is free, so wander through even if you are not hungry. Then it is 810 m, about 12 minutes, to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes; on the way you pass the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Santiago.

   Hours

   Mon–Fri 06:00–17:00, Sat 07:00–17:00, Sun 09:00–17:00

   Price

   Free (public food market, no entry fee)

   Website

   mercadocentral.cl ↗

   Location

   Mercado Central de Santiago on Google Maps ↗

3. 3

   Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes

   

   The Palacio de Bellas Artes stands in the Parque Forestal, designed by the Chilean architect Emile Jéquier in full Beaux-Arts style and inaugurated on 21 September 1910, during an international exposition celebrating a hundred years of Chilean independence. The park around it was laid out by Jorge Enrique Dubois, who had trained at the gardening school of Versailles, so both building and setting look toward France.

   The museum itself is older than its palace. It was founded on 18 September 1880 as the Museo Nacional de Pinturas, which makes it the oldest art museum in South America. President Aníbal Pinto, the minister Manuel García de la Huerta, Marcos Segundo Maturana and the sculptor José Miguel Blanco set it up, and the painter Juan Mochi became its first director. In 1887 it moved into a building known as the Parthenon, built by the Artistic Union for its annual exhibitions, and took the name Museum of Fine Arts. In 1901 the government decided it deserved a building of its own.

   The palace has survived two major earthquakes. After the 1960 quake damaged it, it was seismically upgraded, and in 2010 the damage was limited to fallen pieces of the exterior. Behind it sits the University of Chile's Museum of Contemporary Art, which also houses the old School of Fine Arts.

   Admission is free, and this is one of the major centres for Chilean and South American art, so even an hour inside is well spent if art is your thing. From here it is 540 m, about 7 minutes, to Barrio Lastarria, passing the Museo de Artes Visuales.

   Hours

   Tue–Sun 10:00–18:30 (last entry 18:20), Mon closed

   Price

   Free (national museum, free admission)

   Website

   mnba.cl ↗

   Location

   Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes on Google Maps ↗

4. 4

   Barrio Lastarria

   

   Barrio Lastarria is a historic neighbourhood that has become the cultural heart of central Santiago, with cinemas, theatres, museums, restaurants and bars, most of them along J.V. Lastarria street. It is bordered by the Alameda and the Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral to the south, Santa Lucía Hill to the west, the Parque Forestal to the north and Plaza Baquedano to the east. Festivals and live performances often spill into the streets here and into the park.

   Its roots go back to the conquest. After Pedro de Valdivia took the valley, this area was left in the hands of Bartolomé Blumenthal, a German migrant, who built a mill on the site. Like many neighbourhoods in central Santiago it grew around a church, here the Iglesia de la Veracruz, and houses filled the winding streets between.

   Look for the Plaza Mulato Gil de Castro and the house there from the beginning of the nineteenth century. The plaza itself is surprisingly young: it was only created in 1981, to preserve a row of facades starting from the historic Gil de Castro house.

   In the 1990s the neighbourhood was restored with care not to lose its bohemian, intellectual feel; cafés, bars and cultural centres opened toward the end of that decade, and the facades of the Iglesia de la Veracruz were restored in 2001 and 2002. Lastarria became an official Zona Típica in 1997, and on 5 November 2006 the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation declared it Santiago's first gay-friendly neighbourhood at an event in the Parque Forestal. From here it is 500 m, about 7 minutes, to Cerro Santa Lucía.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free (public neighborhood)

   Location

   Barrio Lastarria on Google Maps ↗

5. 5

   Cerro Santa Lucía

   

   Cerro Santa Lucía rises 69 m above the streets around it, a park of 65,300 square metres decorated with ornate facades and fountains, with a viewpoint at the summit. Entry is free; give yourself time to reach the top.

   Long before the Spanish arrived, the Indigenous people of the valley called this hill Huelén or Welén, and the Mapuche name Cerro Huelén is still used. Pedro de Valdivia took it on 13 December 1540, the feast day of Santa Lucía, and the saint's name stuck. Its first use by the missionaries was as a place of prayer during an outbreak of disease in 1541.

   In 1816 Manuel Olaguer Feliú, brigadier of the Royal Engineers, built two forts of stone and lime here, one north and one south of the summit, each holding eight or twelve cannons, plus an ammunition depot and quarters for the garrison. Fort Hidalgo was finished in 1820. The other side of the hill had a darker use: a cemetery for the dissidents, people who did not follow the official Catholic faith or were considered unworthy of hallowed ground. Their remains were later moved to a secluded section of the General Cemetery.

   The hill also has a place in the history of science. In 1849 James Melville Gilliss led an American naval expedition to Chile to measure the solar parallax more precisely and set up an observatory up here. When the expedition ended in September 1852, the Chilean government bought the observatory and its equipment, and they became the nucleus of the first National Astronomical Observatory. From here it is 740 m, about 10 minutes, to the Iglesia de San Francisco.

   Hours

   Summer: Mon 12:00–20:30, Tue–Sun 07:00–20:30; Winter: Mon 12:00–19:30, Tue–Sun 08:00–19:30

   Price

   Free

   Website

   cerrosisla.cl ↗

   Location

   Cerro Santa Lucía on Google Maps ↗

6. 6

   Iglesia de San Francisco

   

   The Iglesia de San Francisco on the Alameda was consecrated in 1618 and is considered the oldest surviving church and the oldest surviving building in Santiago. It is built entirely of stone on a Latin cross plan and has withstood several of the earthquakes that have struck the capital. It was conceived in American Baroque style; later restorations added neoclassical elements.

   Its story starts with the founding of the city. Between 1542 and 1543 Pedro de Valdivia had a small hermitage, the Ermita del Socorro, built here to house an image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help that he had carried on horseback on his journey to Chile. The Mercedarians first guarded the site, but in 1554 the city handed it to the Franciscan friars.

   In 1583 an earthquake destroyed the little adobe hermitage completely. The Franciscans rebuilt with money from the city's Catholic parishioners and help from King Philip II, this time with solid stone. The friars designed the church themselves and led the work, relying on Indigenous labourers from the surrounding area. A first cloister followed, which grew into the Franciscan monastery.

   Next to the church is the Museo de Arte Colonial, which charges admission; it is worth it if the colonial period interests you, while a look at the church walls costs nothing. From here it is only 320 m, about 4 minutes, to Barrio París-Londres, built on land that once belonged to these very friars.

   Hours

   Mon–Fri 09:30–17:00, Sat 09:30–14:00, Sun closed (Museum; last entry 30 min before closing)

   Price

   5.000 CLP foreign tourists, 3.000 CLP adults, 2.000 CLP Chilean seniors/students (Museo de Arte Colonial)

   Website

   monumentos.gob.cl ↗

   Location

   Iglesia de San Francisco on Google Maps ↗

7. 7

   Barrio París-Londres

   

   After the wide Alameda, Barrio París-Londres feels like a different city: a small quarter of European style architecture with narrow, curving cobbled streets. It was designed by Ernesto Holzmann, father and son. No building here is taller than five floors.

   The land belonged to the Franciscans of the Iglesia de San Francisco. In the early twentieth century the church's financial troubles forced it to sell its central and farm plots to private buyers. When the authorities of the 1920s heard about it, they acquired part of the land and commissioned well known European architects to design and build here.

   Notice the contrast in the street plan: the inner streets, París and Londres, wind and curve, while the outer streets San Francisco, Serrano and Padre Alonso de Ovalle run straight. There is very little commerce; most buildings are guesthouses, offices and homes, which keeps the quarter quiet.

   At the corner of París and Londres stands the headquarters of the Partido Radical de Chile, which also served as the base of the Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia, the centre left coalition. Its coordination meetings were held here on Mondays, followed by press conferences. The quarter is open and free. From here it is 740 m, about 10 minutes, to the Palacio de la Moneda, passing the Plaza de la Ciudadanía and the Centro Cultural La Moneda.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free (public historic street, open-air, no ticket desk)

   Location

   Barrio París-Londres on Google Maps ↗

8. 8

   Palacio de la Moneda

   

   The Palacio de la Moneda, the Palace of the Mint, is the seat of the President of Chile and fills an entire block of the Civic District. The Italian-born architect Joaquín Toesca designed it in a restrained neoclassical style as the royal mint of colonial Chile; it opened in 1805, and coins were struck here until 1929. President Manuel Bulnes made it the seat of government in the 1840s. Three ministries still have their offices inside.

   The mint itself has an older story. In 1732, with the colonial economy in deep depression, Santiago's Cabildo asked the Spanish Crown for a mint. Neither had the money, so in 1743 King Philip V granted the concession to a private man, the merchant Francisco García Huidobro, later 1st Marquess of Casa Real, who would carry any losses and keep any profits. The first coin, in gold, was struck on 10 September 1749 in his house at Huérfanos and Morandé. In the 1770s the Crown took over and moved the mint into a former Jesuit college that proved unsuitable, which is how this building came about.

   On 11 September 1973, during the military coup led by Augusto Pinochet, army tanks and artillery attacked the palace while the air force bombed it from the air. President Salvador Allende died inside. La Moneda was rebuilt over the following years and reopened in 1981. Since José Antonio Kast took office in March 2026, it has once again served as the president's official residence, for the first time in decades.

   The squares around the palace are open to everyone and free, and the Centro Cultural Palacio de La Moneda underground is free as well; going inside the palace itself takes advance booking. From here it is 610 m, about 8 minutes, to the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, past the Plaza de la Constitución and the Palacio de los Tribunales de Justicia.

   Hours

   Mon–Fri (only with a pre-booked time slot); outdoor squares open 24/7; CCLM daily 10:00–19:30

   Price

   Free (government palace; exterior Plaza de la Constitución open to public, free Centro Cultural Palacio de La Moneda underground)

   Website

   visitaspatrimonio.presidencia.cl ↗

   Location

   Palacio de la Moneda on Google Maps ↗

9. 9

   Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino

   

   The Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino sits in the Palacio de la Real Aduana, the old royal customs house built between 1805 and 1807, a block west of the Plaza de Armas. It exists because of one collector: the architect Sergio Larraín García-Moreno spent nearly fifty years gathering pre-Columbian artefacts and was looking for a place to show and preserve them. With the support of the city government he secured the building, and the museum opened in December 1981. In 2014 an extension by the Chilean architect Smiljan Radić Clarke enlarged it by 70 percent.

   The collection holds over 3,000 pieces from almost 100 different peoples, spanning about 10,000 years, from Mesoamerica, the Isthmo-Colombian region, the Caribbean, Amazonia and the Andes. Larraín chose his pieces for their beauty rather than their scientific or historical context, and you can feel that as you walk through: this is an art museum first.

   Things to look for: a statue of Xipe Totec, an incense burner from Teotihuacan and a Maya bas-relief in the Mesoamerican rooms; pottery of the Valdivia culture, Capulí figures chewing coca leaf and gold from the Veraguas and Diquís cultures in the intermediate area; and from the central Andes, masks and copper figures, many of them once confiscated from graves.

   This one charges admission. If you plan to go into only one paid museum on the walk, and objects from across the Americas appeal to you more than paintings, make it this one. From here it is 220 m, about 3 minutes, to the Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago.

   Hours

   Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00 (last entry 17:15), Mon closed

   Price

   12.000 CLP foreign tourists, 3.000 CLP Chilean citizens/residents, 5.000 CLP foreign students, 1.000 CLP Chilean/resident students

   Website

   precolombino.cl ↗

   Location

   Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino on Google Maps ↗

10. 10

    Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago

    

    Back on the Plaza de Armas, the Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago is the seat of the Archbishop and the main Catholic church of Chile, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Together with the Archbishop's Palace and the Parish del Sagrario it forms an ensemble of national monuments. It was built between 1748 and 1906, designed by Joaquín Toesca, the same architect as La Moneda, and Ignacio Cremonesi. It is the fifth church on this site.

    When Valdivia refounded Santiago on an Inca tambo in 1541, he assigned the Inca temple on this side of the square for a church. While it was being built, Mass was celebrated at the door of the governor's house, where the Central Post Office stands today. The first chapel was probably straw and mud; from 1544 at the latest Mass was no longer held outdoors. The first real cathedral went up between 1566 and 1600, much smaller than today's, richly decorated and oriented north to south with its facade on Calle Catedral.

    Then came a very local quarrel. Around 1600 some argued that the north door should be closed because of the indecency of the houses opposite, home to ordinary neighbours rather than the church community. The main entrance moved to the square, to the so-called Puerta del Perdón, and the north door stayed partly or fully blocked until it was destroyed in 1769.

    The cathedral and its museum are free to enter; special tower tours may charge. From here it is only 120 m, about 2 minutes, to the Museo Histórico Nacional, past the Correo Central de Santiago.

    Hours

    Mon–Fri 10:00–18:00, Sat–Sun 09:00–13:30

    Price

    Free (cathedral + museum; special tower tours may charge)

    Website

    catedraldesantiago.cl ↗

    Location

    Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago on Google Maps ↗

11. 11

    Museo Histórico Nacional

    

    You finish where you started, on the Plaza de Armas. The Museo Histórico Nacional was founded in 1911 and has been housed since 1982 in the former palace of the Real Audiencia, the royal court, on the north side of the square. It covers the political, social and cultural history of Chile from pre-colonial times to the twentieth century, is among the most visited museums in the country, and entry is free.

    Its collection goes back to 1873, when Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna, the same man who opened the Mercado Central, organised the Exposición del Coloniaje. Families connected to him lent their pieces for a year: around 600 objects from the Captaincy General of Chile, the colonial administrative unit, plus a few pre-Columbian ones. The exhibition was held in the old governor's house next door, the building of today's Correo Central.

    It was such a success that it was made permanent, and for that the Castillo Hidalgo on Santa Lucía Hill was bought, the fort you heard about on the summit. Its rooms, used as a prison in colonial times, were converted into exhibition halls. In the early twentieth century Luis Montt Montt, director of the National Library, pushed for a permanent exhibition to preserve Chile's heritage, which led to the museum's founding.

    After everything you have seen on the walk, this is a good place to put the pieces together: the conquest, the colony, independence and the twentieth century, all under one roof. If you have energy for one more museum today, make it this one.

    Hours

    Tue–Sun 10:00–17:30, Mon closed

    Price

    Free

    Website

    museohistoriconacional.cl ↗

    Location

    Museo Histórico Nacional on Google Maps ↗

Shorter Ways Through Central Santiago

Eleven stops are a full day if you go into the museums. These three cuts follow the same order and work well on their own.

Market, art and the hill

Stops: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

For a free morning: from the Plaza de Armas through the market, the fine arts museum and Barrio Lastarria up to Cerro Santa Lucía. 34 min of walking, and not a single entry fee.

Friars, palaces and museums

Stops: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

For history lovers who start at the hill: down to the Iglesia de San Francisco, through Barrio París-Londres, past La Moneda and back to the Plaza de Armas. 37 min of walking; the colonial art museum and the Precolombino charge admission, the cathedral and the history museum are free.

The government quarter in an afternoon

Stops: 8, 9, 10, 11

For a short visit focused on power and the past: La Moneda, pre-Columbian art, the cathedral and Chile's history museum. Only 13 min of walking; the Precolombino is the one with an entry fee.

How Long the Santiago de Chile Tour Takes, With and Without Museums

Pure walking time is 1 h 12 min over 5.2 km, and no leg is longer than 810 m. The real time goes into looking: with a wander through the market and the cathedral, a stroll through Lastarria and time on the summit of Cerro Santa Lucía, but no museum visits, plan around four hours. Each museum you go into adds roughly an hour, so doing Bellas Artes and the Precolombino properly turns the walk into a six-hour day.

The northern variant from the Plaza de Armas to Cerro Santa Lucía takes about two and a half hours with an hour inside Bellas Artes. The southern variant from the hill back to the square takes around three hours with the Precolombino included. The government quarter alone fits into two hours with one museum.

Before You Set Off From the Plaza de Armas

• Start: Plaza de Armas, with the metro station of the same name right beneath the square. You can join at any stop; the sequence described is the recommended one.
• Finish: Museo Histórico Nacional, on the north side of the Plaza de Armas, so you end on the square where you began.
• Time of day: Start in the morning so the market and the museums are open as you reach them, and check each stop's hours before you go.
• Entry fees: The colonial art museum at the Iglesia de San Francisco and the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino charge admission. Everything else is free, including the national fine arts and history museums and the cathedral.

Common Questions About Walking Central Santiago