Palacio Eguiguren, Palace in Barrio Dieciocho, Santiago, Chile

Palacio Eguiguren is a brick-masonry mansion at the corner of Dieciocho and Padre Alonso de Ovalle, in Santiago's Barrio Dieciocho. Its facade pairs Doric ornament with classical symmetry, and three wrought-steel entrances open onto the street. Inside, white marble stairs with steel handrails and bronze balustrades rise to a second-floor hall framed by four double columns.

Architect Alberto Cruz Montt built the mansion in 1918 for the politician and landowner Luis Eguiguren Valero and his wife Elisa Irarrázaval Correa. After Eguiguren's death it was bought by the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, which installed its Faculty of Pedagogy there. It later passed to Duoc UC as the Padre Alonso de Ovalle campus, one of the institution's oldest.

The second-floor hall, ringed by four double columns between the bedrooms, keeps its original role and is the most decorated space in the house. The private oratory, with wooden panels, mouldings, statues on pedestals and a wrought-iron lamp, shows the Chilean social culture of the period, moving between religious practice and display.

The building now serves as the Alonso de Ovalle campus of DUOC UC and operates as an active educational facility with regular classes. Visitors should check ahead before visiting, as not all areas may be accessible to the public and the academic schedule may affect visiting possibilities.

Between one volume and another stands a reinforced-concrete wall whose structure is made of railway rails, a technique widely used after the violent earthquakes of 1905 and 1906. The facades and party walls are brick masonry rather than adobe, which helps explain the building's sound condition.