#My Treasure Author #Santa Lucia is probably the starting point of modern Chile and the oldest monument in modern Chile, without one: in 1541, the Spaniard Pedro de Valdivia (Pedro de Valdivia) arrived here with 150 cavalry, and saw a flat peak, a thousand mountains and water, and a vast plain, so he set up camp under the slopes of the Mapocho River, and built the first primitive dwellings with grass and mud bricks. For defense, a seven-pointed fort - Fort Hidalgo was built on this hill, and the first battery of the Spanish wedge on the South American continent was erected, and this area became the prototype of Chile's earliest city and the place of Pedro de Valdivia, who thus pioneered and became the first royal governor in Chile's colonial history, and personally named the city "Santiago de Chile in Nueva Extrema". With this status, Mount Santa Lucia is the first choice for many historical tourists who arrive in Chile.
It takes about 1 hour to walk from the Las Condes district where I live to the Santa Lucia Hill, while the Santa Lucia Hill is adjacent to the core area of the old city, rich in historical sites, and famous attractions such as the Presidential Palace, the National History Museum, and the Plaza de Armas are all around.
Bring dry food, get water, put on headphones and listen to the song, walk all the way, and after a few songs, you have arrived at Plaza Baquedano, and Google Maps shows that it is nearly halfway through.
Named in honor of Chilean military strongman General Baghdadano, Baghdadano Square is an important transportation hub in Santiago and a transit point between the old city and the New World, the border between the poor in the west and the rich in the east. There are huge billboards on the old high-rise buildings around the square, mainly advertisements of some telecom operators, and it seems that the monopoly industry can eat everywhere.
After 19 years of turmoil, the square has long lost its former luster, the bronze statue of General Baghdadno has been torn down and dragged away, the base of the monument is covered with graffiti, and the flowers and green space are gone, leaving only yellow sand flying in the wind. Heavily armed police patrolled the statue on all sides, and the green police cars were tightly wrapped in steel mesh, creating a tense atmosphere like a great enemy, only the statue of Our Lady on the top of San Cristobal Hill looked at with compassion at what was happening on the ground beneath her feet.
Compared with the past and the present, there are many feelings
Continue west along O'Higgins Avenue, passing the Centre Gabriela Mistral.
According to reports, this art center was built in 2010 and will occasionally host concerts, dances, theater performances and large-scale art exhibitions, and is San Diego's contemporary art center.
The building is boxy and angular. The exterior wall is decorated with a layer of metal cover, and the creative idea is estimated to be a fight with the "bird's nest", but the curtain wall is iron after all, the wind and rain have been blowing for a long time, it looks decayed and old, and there is a feeling of crispy slag, like a huge abandoned steel factory, not at all like a modern building that is only more than 10 years old.
The exterior walls of the building are littered with posters and advertisements, as well as graffiti and even a bloody coat – a way that relatives and friends of the deceased hope to awaken the rejection of violence and the value of life. And this set of graffiti of "pig rights protectionism". Anyone can express their thoughts freely in the art form they think they have, and it will also attract people's attention, and many pedestrians will stop and gaze, which should return to the essence of art.
I went in and circled around with novelty.
Only one floor of the huge three-story building is open, and the only exhibition space on this floor is only one exhibition room, which is empty; There are also very few people who visit, "seven or eight stars away, two or three o'clock before the rain mountain"; The outdoor restaurant is thriving, and people enjoy the weekend with afternoon tea.
The exhibits in the art museum are basically modern artworks, of course, the workmanship is relatively original and rough, but fortunately they are full of life.
It is worth mentioning that this container made of cowhide, especially these four feet, is the nipple of a cow, I am not sure, but I clearly feel the pain.
There is also this overturned two-legged black pottery cup, which must be made into three legs according to Chinese practice.
A large gold ring that looks weighty, and it is full of intricate three-dimensional carvings carved by hand.
Although these two potters are rudimentary, they are full of spirit.
It was very leisurely after eating.
Past the Gabriella Arts Center, the commanding point of Old San Diego, the Santa Lucia Hill, is already in sight.
The Mount of Saint Lucia is not so much a mountain as a pile of huge rocks that are not too tall, which should be less than 100 meters, but fortunately the rocks are steep, and in the early firearms age, it is also easy to defend and difficult to attack. There is still a castle built by the Spanish on the top of the mountain, after hundreds of years of invasion, most of the castle has disappeared, only the silhouette, together with the surrounding green space is open to the public for free, becoming one of the rare recreational and cultural holy places in the entire city, affectionately known as "Lover's Mountain" by the locals.
Ascending the stone steps into the garden, you will be greeted by a yellow Greek gate built on a hill, surrounded by a flowing spring, and Poseidon sculptures with tridents forking non-existent fish. Two semicircular staircases on the left and right lead from the porch platform to the courtyard on the ground floor, where palm trees sway in the breeze.
To the top of the mountain, you will take the winding road built in later generations, and in just a few laps you will reach the mountainside, where you will see the small courtyard and tower of the castle. The boulder that stands parallel to the castle has a sculpture of an Indian. I thought it was a description of the scene of attacking the castle with bows and arrows, and I also lamented that the natives of the Cold Weapon Age faced the dimensionality reduction blows of the Spanish colonists in the Firearms Age. Later, after being pointed out, I learned that this sculpture depicts a pioneer holding a hammer, praising the pioneering spirit of the local ancestors who started the mountains and forests, which shows my own "impure thinking". In other words, this sculpture is simply rigid and unsightly here.
How come this is all a siege
Further up you need to climb the stairs, which are very steep. Condescending from the head of the city, it is indeed easy to defend and difficult to attack.
Because the history here is really short, climbing the ancient and shooting the railing, it is difficult to have the feeling of ancient and modern meditation, think that it is easy to go up the mountain and difficult to go down, and if you don't go back, it is difficult to ensure a smooth and stable home, so I decisively said goodbye to Lovers Mountain, and it is estimated that I will not come again for a long time.