Portal Fernández Concha, Commercial building at Plaza de Armas, Santiago, Chile
Portal Fernández Concha is a building on the southern edge of Plaza de Armas, between Paseo Ahumada and Estado Street. Its current appearance dates from a 1928 remodel by architects Josué Smith Solar and José Smith Miller: seven floors, plus an eighth level in the attic, with a monumental facade. A Virgin Mary by Chilean sculptor Domingo García Huidobro sits at the centre of the seventh level, carved from a block of concrete. The ground-floor gallery of shops connects to the block's interior galleries, the Pasaje Matte.
Built in 1871, it replaced the earlier Portal Sierra Bella structure at this location. A British architect designed it with financial backing from the Fernández Concha brothers.
The building's name comes from the brothers Pedro and Domingo Fernández Concha, investors who financed its construction. Its ground-floor gallery is known for typical Chilean food: fuentes de soda and fast-food stalls. The Quick Lunch Bahamondes stall claimed to have created the completo, the local hot dog, in the 1920s.
The building stands on the south side of Plaza de Armas, between Paseo Ahumada and Estado Street, with the arcade on the ground floor and the Pasaje Matte galleries connected to the rest of the block. Enter from the square side; the upper floors are reached by stairs and lifts inside the portal.
The building's name honours the brothers Pedro and Domingo Fernández Concha, among the investors who financed it. Its second floor housed the Hotel Santiago, replaced in 1884 by the Gran Hotel Inglés, the first hotel in the city with electric light in every room.
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