Travel Guide Pisagua

North of Iquique, on the coast, this small village of less than 260 inhabitants was a very important port for the saltpetre industry during the 19th century. The Pacific War raged here, as did the civil war in 1891. In 1941, Junius Bird discovered the remains of the Chinchorro mummies. But Pisagua is also infamous for having housed a concentration camp after the 1947 communist purge (government of Gabriel González Videla, whose name recalls the Argentine dictator of the 1970s), and after the 1973 coup d'état. It should be noted that a certain Captain Pinochet was in charge of the Pisagua camp in the 1950s. The story goes that Salvador Allende travelled there with a parliamentary delegation to find out about the condition of the prisoners, but that the captain advised him to wrap up his investigation as quickly as possible, if he didn't want any more problems. Today, you might like to take a detour to soak up the charm of the period wooden houses, such as the imposing (but dilapidated) municipal theater, built in 1879 from Oregon pine, with its beautiful balusters and cornices; or the Torre Reloj (bell tower), built in 1887, which stands 12 m high.