Palacio Piwonka, Palace in Santiago commune, Chile.

Palacio Piwonka is a two-storey neoclassical mansion with rococo details, built in 1918 by architects Alberto Siegel and Manuel Cifuentes. Its front is framed by colonnades and an Oregon pine gate with opaline glass and garlands; a mansard roof with French-style oculi ends in a corner dome. Inside, a wide corridor opens onto an octagonal hall lit by a modernist stained-glass skylight.

Heynrich Ernst Piwonka, a Berlin-born master dyer, reached Valdivia in 1853 with his wife Amalie Richter and four children. His son Ricardo moved to Osorno, bought the Almacenes Generales and later acquired mills near Estación Central and Cerro San Cristóbal. In 1918 Ricardo and his cousin Sofía Gilabert commissioned architects Alberto Siegel and Manuel Cifuentes to build the palace; the twin sons Alfredo and Alberto inherited it, and Ana Moreno de Piwonka lived there until 1984.

The palace takes its name from Ricardo Piwonka Richter, a Lutheran and Radical of German descent, and his Puerto Rican wife Sofía Jilabert Roselot. Their three daughters married in the palace, and the widow Elvira Moreno later divided the upper floor into rental apartments. A camouflaged door in the tea room led to a card room for rocambor.

The palace faces the church of San Lázaro on Avenida Ejército 412, in the Ejército Libertador neighbourhood of Santiago, and serves as the Casa Central of Universidad Diego Portales. The building is in institutional use, so visits depend on the university's authorisation; ask in advance. The second-floor loggia looks directly onto the church across the street.

The main entrance leads into an octagonal hall illuminated by a modernist skylight that preserves original architectural elements from the construction year. This eight-sided space demonstrates how classical and contemporary design influences merged in 1918.