Santiago, Chile. Sunday 26th November 2006.

Sunday morning and I am driving through the sun drenched streets of Santiago listening to big band music on my way to the Palacio Cousiño.

Santiago is a beautiful modern city and there is real wealth here. There are very rich people, but unlike Brazil there are not the same extremes in that sense Chile is more like the UK. The majority of the population are comfortably middle-class and sharing, however limited this may be on a personal level, in the countries prosperity.

They seem to be fitness crazy here from aerobics in the parks to cyclists everywhere.

In Chile a few elite families have dominated historically and one of the most important is the Cousiño family. The Palacio Cousiño was built by the family in the late 19th century. The family wealth came from mining and vineyard interests mainly and the Palacio was a demonstration of the family's power and prestige when it was built.

The Palacio was constructed in the French rococo style both beacause the family spent half the year in Santiago and the other half in Paris and becuase the fashion of the day was for all things European, especially French.

Built like a grand European house, although in miniature; as you enter this casa you are welcomed by four painted panels reflecting the European seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter.

Like all the great European houses there is a small reception room which then leads on to the public rooms of the house such as the Ballroom (although this is very small and would only really be of use for intimate gatherings).

The family claimed this room was a mini Versailles with all its mirrors, and it is certainly a lovely gilt room. Throughout the house mirrors are put to good use to create a feeling of both depth and space.

The ballroom does contain a lovely example of the indiscrete chair. Such chairs (for three) were where courting couples could sit and discuss in the company of a chaperone.

Rich families copied the European style right down to the tearoom where ladies would take English tea in the mid-afternoon. A symbol of this families wealth is that all the curtains in the house were hand embroidered by nuns in France.

Houses were a reflection of the social conditions of the time and so from the formal dining room one can access the tearoom (for the ladies); the games room (for the gentlemen) and the winter garden or conservatory.

The structure of society was enforced by architecture and like all great houses there are secret doors such that guests need only see the servants for the minimum of time with food etc brought from the kitchens by servants passages only entering the main house in the appropriate room.

Buildings would cater for every social need from the large formal dining room to the discrete and intimate family dining room.

The games room is a wonderful example of the Moorish style, a reflection of the origins of smoking and games of chance in Turkey.

Art as always plays its part in social conformity and there are two wonderful sculptures in the music room reflecting summer and winter. Summer with all the opportunity it brings is naturally represented as a boy. Boys, after all were thought to bring good fortune, and with this a continuance of the family name. The cold reality of winter on the other hand is represented by a girl who will be a cost and a burden to the family until they can marry her off.

A further sign of this families wealth is the fact that all the furniture for the house was made in France in the style of Louis XVI, as was the fashion at the time.

The main hall is in Moorish and neo-classical style with handpainted tiles from Italy. The main chandelier is of Bohemian crystal and weighs half a ton. The superb marble staircase is actually constructed from at least twenty different types of marble.

The staircase is dominated by ten paintings; five of Santiago scenes and five of Parisien scenes.

In 1938 the third generation of the family to live in the Palacio donated the building to the Chilean government who used it for sometime as a hotel for visiting dignitaries such as Charles de Gaulle, Indira Gandhi and HM The Queen.

The second floor of the Palacio had to be reconstructed following an electrical fire in 1968. Despite this you get a true sense of what life was like for the inhabitants. In the mistresses bedroom for example you even get a moulded set of arms on which to store and thus preserve your gloves.

The house was a major talking point in Santiago when it was constructed. Not just for its luxury but also for its technological advance. The house contained the first elevator in Santiago and the first elevator built in a Chilean factory. The elevator worked on a hydraulic system with the weights filled with water. It looks like a fore-runner of the stairlift, i.e. only for one person seated to ascend to the second floor.

The second major advance of the house was the underfloor central heating.

One of the most interesting facts though has got to be the importance of social convention and fashion that link this house to the great houses of the world. The family were so wealthy and so concerned with the style of the time that they even sent silver from their own mines in Chile over to Sheffield in England to be formed into the cutlery for the house (with the family crest as visible throughout the house and its ornamentation of course).

From the Palacio I make my way to the Iglesia de San Francisco. This is the oldest church in Santiago and it has wonderfully aged white-washed walls.

The church has a beauty in that simple way of the traveller who on arriving at his destination begins building both a life and a memorial to home and familiarity.
You get the sense of all the resources of the early settlers being poured into the church as not only the most important building in early Santiago, but also the centre of life.
However, as time moves on and settlements get wealthier so new churches are built and social division sets in.

Whilst I am sitting here during the mass a very strange event occurs. An older man comes along and sets about moving all the candles at the base of the Calvary altar placing them around the altars centre. He then proceeds to strip off. He is then escorted out.

On exploring the church you find at the back an interesting display of small paintings of the Stations of the Cross all set in the early colonial period in South America.

At the other side there is the strangest thing I have ever seen in a church. There is a great deal of vandalism on the ancient walls where people have been encouraged to write. All the vandalism is related in some way to God.

Also I get the feeling that this is the parish for those who are non-traditional as I watch a lady and her poddle (resplendent in a pink bow) enjoy the service and take full part.

This is a lovely church, but like almost all churches I have seen on this continent it has that kitsch Latin American thing going on of statues surrounded by lightbulbs.

I've had a busy day and so I head next door to the Hotel Plaza San Francisco to the Cascada Bistro for a well earned and enjoyable lunch of Chilean beef.

Tonight I have a wonderful last meal in Chile back where I began dining in the restaurant here at The Atton. The food and the service were exquisite.