Estancia San Gregorio, Former sheep estate in San Gregorio, Chile

Estancia San Gregorio is an old agro-industrial complex on the northeast shore of the Strait of Magellan, at km 120 of the CH-255, with buildings of brick, wood and zinc on both sides of the road. Its facilities included a fat-rendering plant, greenhouse, shearing shed, sheep dip, smithy, warehouses, workers' housing, kitchen, company store, chapel, infirmary, library, theatre and its own pier and railway.

José Menéndez founded the estancia, and Marius Andrieu built it from 1878 onward. It peaked between 1910 and 1930, when its 91,805 hectares carried 122,849 sheep, 387 cattle and 401 horses. A new main house was built in 1925 by French architect Antoine Beaulier. The estate stayed fully active only until the 1970s.

The name San Gregorio comes from the bay it faces on the Strait of Magellan. The estate was built as a self-contained settlement: its chapel, infirmary, library, theatre and company store served the workers, and a 1920 account describes wool bales pressed, loaded onto a small train and lifted by the ship's cranes at the pier. Today only summer shearing keeps the site in use.

The estate lies at kilometre 120 of the CH-255 international route, north of Punta Arenas, with the remaining buildings of the old casco on both sides of the road. The site is only used in summer for shearing, so outside that season the buildings are seen from outside. The wrecks of the Amadeo and the Ambassador lie on the beach facing the bay.

The estate had its own railway system and port for direct product transportation, making it an exceptional self-contained operation in the region. This infrastructure allowed the property to operate independently from external transport networks.