Parque Por La Paz Villa Grimaldi (Peace Park)
Villa Grimaldi, the former headquarters of General Pinochet’s notorious secret police force, reopened in 1997 under a new guise as a memorial park to the victims of Chile’s military dictatorship. An estimated 5,000 political prisoners were detained and tortured here between the 1973 military coup and 1987 – and 226 of these ‘disappeared’. The park opened in March 1997, marking a crucial step in Chile’s reconciliation with its bloody past, and was the first government-sanctioned memorial to Pinochet’s victims. It houses an oral archive, a museum that provides context for place and to promote human rights. There’s also a wide programme of guided and self-guided tours.
