San Agustín de Puñual, Historical museum in Ninhue, Chile.
San Agustín de Puñual is a hacienda with a central courtyard in Ninhue that displays colonial-period objects and items related to Chilean naval history. The building retains its original rectangular layout with galleries arranged around the inner court.
The house was built in 1780 for Pedro Chacón and Concepción Barrios. After a fire destroyed the property of their daughter María Rosario Chacón and her husband Pedro Agustín Prat, the couple was received at the hacienda, where their son Arturo Prat Chacón was born on 3 April 1848. Repairs after the 1939 Chillán earthquake were destroyed by the 1960 Valdivia earthquake; the estate was declared a National Historic Monument in 1968 and passed to the Chilean Navy in 1976.
The house takes its name from the estate, San Agustín de Puñual, and is also called Santuario Cuna de Prat, the shrine of Prat's birthplace. Its rooms hold objects of the colonial era and of the hacienda's farm production, alongside displays on Arturo Prat from childhood through the Chilean Navy to his death at the 1879 Battle of Iquique.
The museum is run by the Chilean Armed Forces and offers guided tours through the exhibitions. Plan time to explore the central courtyard, which plays a key role in how the collections are presented and arranged.
The museum closed after the 27 February 2010 earthquake and reopened only partially on 2 August 2012; full opening came on 14 January 2014. Repairs were funded by IANSA, BHP Billiton and Celulosa Arauco through Chile's Cultural Donations Law.
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