With this progress, it is projected that at the end of 2025 work will begin to transform the Former Arica La Paz Railway Station into the new nerve center of culture and heritage in the region.
The National Cultural Heritage Service celebrated this week the receipt of the building permit for the new Regional Library of Arica and Parinacota, making it possible to project the start of the restoration and fitting out works of this new space for the end of 2025, then of obtaining the favorable recommendation from Mideso.
The initiative contemplates restoring the former Railway Station (FFCC) of Arica La Paz, a building declared a National Historical Monument in 1990, and enabling it to be transformed into a cultural and heritage focus of the region, providing free services to the inhabitants of the region. city.
Likewise, it plans the construction of two new buildings, a cafeteria and an auditorium with capacity for 180 people and the provision of offices for the Council of National Monuments and the Coordination of Public Libraries.
The regional director of Serpat, Lenina Barrios, pointed out that this is “a new and significant step so that in the coming years the region has a cultural and heritage space of excellence, which provides access to reading, information, and entertainment. , and be a meeting place for regional diversity.”
The Arica Passenger Station was inaugurated in 1913 and declared a Historical Monument in 1990. It is located on 21 de Mayo Street, next to the Maritime Government building and the Former Customs building, current House of Culture.
The former Arica La Paz Railway Station, a historical icon built by the English firm “Sociedad Sir John Jackson (Chile) Ltda.” for Ferrocarriles del Estado (EFE), is a testimony of railway development in Chile.
Inaugurated in 1913 with a neoclassical design and Comanche stones, it served as a vital link between the port of Arica and the saltpeter mines, standing out for its location next to the Ex Customs and the German locomotive Alt Essligen, used in the difficult sector of “Zipper”.
The Arica to La Paz railway, initially part of the 1904 Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Trade between Chile and Bolivia, initially operated as a single unit under Chilean administration until its delivery to Bolivia in 1928.
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