Cerro San Cristóbal

The air grows cooler as you climb. Below you, the city spreads out in a wide grid of streets and rooftops. Beyond it, on a clear day, the long white wall of the Andes stands along the horizon. You are on Cerro San Cristobal, a green hill that rises straight out of the heart of Santiago.

The hill takes its name from Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers. It rises roughly three hundred meters above the streets at its foot. For the people of Santiago, this is a place to leave the noise of the city behind. They come here to walk, to run, to rest under the trees, and to look down on the whole valley from above. Runners climb the winding road at dawn, and couples come at dusk to watch the city lights blink on across the basin.

The hill forms the center of a very large urban park called Parque Metropolitano. The park covers the slopes with paths, gardens, and viewpoints, and it is one of the biggest green spaces in the city. People often call it a lung for Santiago. Benches and lookout points line the way. On weekends, whole families come to spend the day among its trees.

There are several ways to reach the top. The oldest is the funicular, a small railway car that climbs the steep slope on a set of rails. It first began carrying passengers in 1925, and it is now protected as a national monument. As the car rises, the city drops away beneath you, and the view grows wider with every passing meter.

A cable car also crosses part of the park, carrying riders high above the treetops in small hanging cabins. Many visitors ride up the hill one way and walk back down the other, taking their time on the winding paths. However you choose to travel, the slow climb is part of the experience, not just the goal.

At the very top stands the great white statue that crowns the hill. It is a figure of the Virgin Mary, shown as the Immaculate Conception. The statue rises about fourteen meters tall on a stone base. Its sections were cast in France, then carried up here and joined together. It has watched over the city from this summit since the early twentieth century.

Just below the statue lies a small open-air sanctuary, a curved space where pilgrims gather to pray. Masses and blessings are held here through the year. In 1987, Pope John Paul the Second prayed at this sanctuary during his visit to Chile. After dark, lights shine up on the white figure, so that it seems to float above the shadowed hill.

From the viewpoint beside the statue, take a moment to find your bearings. The long line of the Andes runs away to the north and south. The towers of the modern downtown rise in one tight cluster. The low spread of the older neighborhoods, brown and green, fills the rest of the basin all the way to the mountains. On the clearest mornings, after rain has washed the air, even the distant peaks stand out sharp and close enough to touch.

The hill holds far more than its summit. On the slopes you will find two large public swimming pools, set into the hillside with open views over the city. Paths and picnic spots are scattered between them. There is a garden laid out in the Japanese style, quiet and carefully kept. Near the lower entrance sits the national zoo, built into the steep and uneven ground.

The main gateway to all of this stands down in Bellavista, the neighborhood at the foot of the hill, by the entrance on Pio Nono street. From there the funicular begins its climb. The contrast is sharp. The loud streets and bars of Bellavista lie just below, while the calm of the wooded hill rises right above the rooftops.

As you walk the paths, notice the trees and the dry, sun-warmed smell of the hillside. Much of this forest was planted by hand over many years, slowly turning a bare slope into the green hill you see today. Birds move in the branches above you. The sounds of the city soften and fade the higher you go.

Before you start back down, find a quiet place to stand and simply look. A whole city lives below you, with millions of lives spread across the valley between the mountains. Seen from up here, all of it grows still and small. This hill has offered the same wide view to the people of Santiago for well over a hundred years.