Punta Arenas, Port city in southern Chile
Punta Arenas sits on the Strait of Magellan in Chilean Patagonia and serves as the southernmost large city on the mainland. Residential and commercial districts spread inland from the port across several hills, surrounded by steppe and distant mountain ranges.
The area was founded in 1848 as a penal colony to secure Chilean sovereignty over the strait. From 1870 onward the settlement grew rapidly through wool trade and ship provisioning, until the Panama Canal in 1914 diverted maritime traffic.
Cemetery Sara Braun displays large mausoleums made of marble and bronze, commemorating wealthy sheep ranchers and traders. Many street names carry Croatian, Spanish and British origins that remain visible in the cityscape today.
Wind from Antarctica can blow hard even in summer, so layered clothing and weatherproof jackets prove useful. Many hotels and restaurants concentrate near Plaza Muñoz Gamero in the center.
Nearby stands Fort Bulnes, a reconstructed wooden fortress from the founding period, located on a windswept cape south of town. Visitors can walk through low wooden palisades and simple barracks that show how colonists lived in the late 1840s.
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