with Viña del Mar and coastal development². In this process, the urban design was adapted to the topography, connecting the hills and the flat areas through streets, stairways, and elevators. These characteristics are followed by public spaces such as plazas, monuments, and traditional promenades in the urban context, which are complemented by others that reflect the local geography and dy- namics. Among these are promenades with viewpoints overlooking the sea, stairways and ascents (or descents) that facilitate movement, and passages and twists and turns created by the irregularity of their layout, all of which are part of everyday life. Along with this, architecture as a defining feature is expressed in the coexistence of diverse styles that, through the creative use of materials and techniques, are adapted to the landscape and climate, bearing witness to the various waves of migration to Valparaíso. Since the late 17th century—with churches such as La Matriz, San Agustín, and San Francisco, San José Castle, and homes around the anchorage and the Almendral—the city has alternated between planned developments and spontaneous solutions, which have been repeatedly transformed by disasters such as the 1906 earthquake and 2014 fire, forcing continuous urban renewal. The “elevators,” for their part, refer to the more than thirty funiculars, built mainly between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in response to the city’s complex topography. Emerging in a context of high urban density and expansion into the hills due to population migration, these systems—driven by municipal policies and integrated with streets and stairways—effectively connected the flat city with the hills, providing a convenient route up to the first plateau³. Some of them have been des- ignated as Historic Monuments because of their architectural, touristic and social value. In addition to these four elements originally identified in the 2003 inscription on the World Heritage List, three new attributes were added in 2013 to further enhance our understanding of the site, as a result of the Retrospective Statement of Outstanding Universal Value (OUV)⁴. One of these is the trolleybus, a mode of transportation that covers the entire city. They were inaugurated in 1952—as successors to the electric tram service that had improved connectivity in the city since 1904 and emerged following the city’s electrification in the 1890s⁵.– with a fleet from the United States, powered by electrical wiring installed along its entire route. Sixteen of them have been designated as Historic Monuments, as they are considered the oldest in the world that are still in their original condition and operational. The port and naval heritage was also included as a feature, compris- ing Navy buildings, port infrastructure, customs facilities, and other remnants that reflect Valparaíso’s central role in maritime trade. Since its designation as the official port of Santiago in 1554⁶ and its establish- ment as a major port in 1811, its development was driven by free trade, the Santiago–Valparaíso railroad (1863)⁷, and the modernization of its infrastructure. It reached its peak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as the main South American Pacific port on the route through the Strait of Magellan, until the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. Finally, the city’s intangible cultural heritage was recognized, as ex- pressed through various forms that reflect Valparaíso’s cosmopolitan character, its social structures, and its traditional crafts. Among these is 2 Samuel J. Martland, Building Valparaíso: Technology, Municipality and the State, 1820-1920 (Chile: DIBAM, 2017), 117 y 226. 3 Ibid., 140, 190 y 235. 4 Municipal Corporation for the Administration of the World Heritage Site, Management Plan. World Heritage Site: Historic Area of the City and Port of Valparaíso and its Buffer Zone 2025-2034 (2025), 25. Available at: https://www.corporacionspmvalparaiso.cl/wp-content/ uploads/PLAN-DE-GESTION-SPM-VALPARAISO-2025-2034-1.pdf [accessed in April 2026]. 5 Ibid., 193. 6 Glenda Kapstein, “Amphitheater City”, ARQ Magazine N°73 (2009): 23. 7 Alberto Texidó, “Evolution of the Coastal Front”, ARQ Magazine N°73 (2009): 70
8 Information System for the Management of Intangible Cultural Heritage, “Traditional Bohemian Music from Valparaíso”. Available at: https://www.sigpa.cl/ficha-elemento/musica- de-la-bohemia-tradicional-de-valparaiso [Accessed in April 2026]. 9 César Cáceres, “Valparaíso and the Post-UNESCO Urban Cycle 2003-2022: Touristification, Heritage, and the Configuration of an Elitist Urban Space”, EURE 50, N°151 (2024): 2. 10 María Paz Valenzuela, “World Heritage Sites: A Genuine Commitment from the Chilean Government?”, PH Magazine N°107 (2022), 317. 11 Municipal Corporation for the Administration of the World Heritage Site, Plan, 14. 12 Ibid., 56. 13 Rodney Harrison, Heritage: Critical Approaches (London: Routledge, 2013), 13 14 UNESCO, Report on the World Heritage Center's Technical Advisory Mission to the World Heritage Site “Historic District of the Port City of Valparaíso” (Chile) November 7–11, 2022 (2022), 7. Available at: https://www.sfgp.gob.cl/sites/www.sfgp.gob.cl/files/2022-12/Informe- final-mision%20Valparaiso%202022.pdf [accessed in April 2026]. 15 World Heritage Site Corporation, Plan, 14. However, in the more than two decades since its inscription on the UNESCO list, several significant developments worth noting have taken place, both at the conceptual and operational levels. One of these relates to how the city’s heritage is understood and the implications this has for its management. This is reflected, for example, in the expansion of its attributes in 2013, with the recognition of its intangible cultural expres- sions being of particular interest, in line with what has been identified as a “process of dematerialization of heritage” 13 , reflecting a paradigm shift from the preservation of the monument itself to a greater emphasis on social values and living traditions recreated in the present. Additionally, among the more than thirty recommendations contained in the report from the UNESCO mission that visited Valparaíso in 2022 is the integration of the provisions of the 2011 Recommendation on Historic Urban Landscapes (HUL), “in order to harmonize the development of the Site with the broader context of urban development in the contem- porary city” 14 . In this regard, the effective incorporation of the PUH as a cross-cutting approach to the site’s management plan 15 —taking into account not only the site itself and its buffer zone, but also its broader surroundings—offers an interesting opportunity for its comprehensive management, viewing the city and its heritage dimension as a whole, the “bohemia porteña”—listed in Chile’s Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage—whose most characteristic genres are the cueca porteña, the waltz, the bolero, and the tango⁸. This diversity is linked to its history, shaped both by rural-to-urban migration and by the arrival of foreign families at the port, which fueled sustained population growth. Based on the recognition of its heritage and the gradual implemen- tation of these attributes, Valparaíso has been the focus of policies, programs, and initiatives aimed at its conservation and enhancement from a heritage perspective⁹. Given the site’s complexity, its diversity, and its continued relevance as a port city today, its management as a World Heritage Site has been marked by tensions between urban development, institutional and regulatory frameworks, economic and political interests, and the social practices of the region. In this regard, the city’s deteriorated condition has been widely rec- ognized—a fact that its residents can observe on a daily basis. This has been noted in the recommendations of UNESCO missions, which have visited the site on several occasions to assess its condition in terms of integrity, authenticity, and the attributes that constitute its Outstanding Universal Value. Among the problems identified is the lack of resources for its conservation 10 , high poverty rates, the depopulation of the port area, the fact that most of the historic district is privately owned 11 , and the failure to update current property laws. In addition, there is the constant threat of natural disasters that have shaped its history, including large-scale fires and earthquakes. There are also other types of threats, such as large-scale real estate development, gentrification, acts of vandalism in public spaces, and the neglect of tra- ditional buildings and infrastructure, such as the elevators themselves. Furthermore, management has identified “a weak connection between intangible heritage and other attributes” 12 .
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