Agustín Ross Cultural Centre, Cultural center and museum in Pichilemu, Chile.
Centro Cultural Agustín Ross is a three-story French Baroque building housing exhibition rooms, a public library, an auditorium, and a music room within roughly 2000 square meters of space. The interior layout accommodates multiple artistic and cultural functions across its floors.
The building was originally constructed between 1906 and 1909 as Casino Ross and operated as one of Chile's earliest casinos until 1931. After the casino closed, it later served as a post office before becoming the cultural center it is today.
Locals call it Casino Ross, though gambling ended in 1931. The basement that later held the La Caverna discotheque now sits beneath the library, and the building's French-imported materials and furniture were ordered by Agustín Ross Edwards himself. The name recalls the casino that ran here from 1917 until Chile banned all casinos except Viña del Mar's.
The building stands beside the Agustín Ross Park, a short walk from the Pichilemu seafront. The former casino's underground floor, once a discotheque, is reached by an interior stair; the main hall and library are on the upper levels. Visitors arriving by the coastal road can park along the park's edge.
Agustín Ross imported building materials and furniture from France and England for the structure, which he wanted to resemble the Grand Trianon of the Tuileries Palace in Paris. In the late 1940s the González Pérez family, who had bought the building, remodelled its underground floor into a clandestine casino.
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