Palacio de La Moneda (, Palace of the Mint), or simply La Moneda, is the seat of the President of the Republic of Chile. It also houses the offices of three cabinet ministers: Interior, General Secretariat of the Presidency, and General Secretariat of the Government. Located in downtown Santiago, it occupies an entire block in the Civic District, bordered by Moneda street to the north, Morandé street to the east, Alameda del Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins to the south, and Teatinos street to the west.
History
La Moneda, originally a colonial mint house, was designed by Italian architect Joaquín Toesca. Construction began in 1784 and was opened in 1805, while still under construction. The production of coins in Chile took place at La Moneda from 1814 to 1929.
In June, 1845 during president Manuel Bulnes's administration, the palace became the seat of government and presidential residence. In 1930, a public square—named Plaza de la Constitución ("Constitution Square")—was built in front of the palace. After the presidency of Gabriel González Videla it ceased to serve as a presidential residence.
During the military coup d'état on September 11, 1973, the Chilean Air Force strafed the palace with unguided rockets and automatic cannon fire. The president Salvador Allende committed suicide in the palace at this time. Reconstruction and restoration projects of the damage caused were completed in March 1981, although some bullet marks have been preserved and can still be seen today. During the 1973–1980 restorations, an underground office complex (the so-called "bunker") was built under the front square to provide a safe escape for General Augusto Pinochet in case of an attack.
Under the presidency of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, the palace was painted white. During President Ricardo Lagos's administration, the palace's inner courtyards were opened to the public during certain hours of the day. Lagos also re-opened Morandé 80—a gate used by Chilean presidents to enter the palace since the early 20th century. It was eliminated during the restoration of the palace as not being in the original plans, but was restored because of the heavy symbolism attached to it as being the gate through which Chilean Presidents entered La Moneda skipping the main's gate guard protocol or, in other words, as ordinary citizens of the country. It was also the gate through which the body of President Allende was taken out after the 1973 coup.
A traditional changing of the guard ceremony takes place every two days on odd-numbered days in odd-numbered months, even-numbered days in even-numbered months, including Sundays, at 10 a.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. on weekends (as of June 2015). A formal ceremony dating back to the 1850s, it lasts about 30 minutes and includes a band playing, troops with horses parading into the square, and much pomp and circumstance. The Carabineros de Chile provides the guard unit and band for the ceremony, the guard unit being composed of a Foot Guards battalion and a Horse Guards squadron.
Architecture
Construction
Joaquín Toesca had worked on many public buildings in colonial Chile, including the Santiago Metropolitan Cathedral, before he was engaged to design the new royal mint that would become the Palacio de la Moneda.
Works on the building started in 1784, with building materials arriving the following year from around Chile and the world: limestone from the Polpaico country estate; sand from the Maipo River; red stones from a quarry at the Cerro San Cristóbal in Santiago; white stone from the neighbouring Cerro Blanco; oak and cypress wood from Valdivia; Spanish metal works from Vizcaya. Twenty varieties of brick were baked in Santiago for the construction of lintels, comers, floors, moldings, and of the solid walls more than a meter thick.
Toesca died in 1799, before seeing his work finished, and military engineer Agustin Cavallero took over the project. The “Mint House of Santiago de Chile” finally opened in 1805.
In 1929, an annex was commissioned the then President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo to give the palace a facade to face the Alameda Avenue, the main street of Santiago. The project was designed by Josué Smith strictly following the design of the original construction. The three-floor annex was built using part of the original construction that was occupied until that date by the mint, which was relocated to a site adjacent to Quinta Normal Park.
In 1940, a former mint pavilion, part of the original design of Toesca, was demolished to make way for the Patio de los Naranjos.