Las Bovedas Museum

About

Literally “The Vaults Museum”, Las Bovedas Museum was actually built by the Jesuits in the 18th century as a smelter. The distinctive egg-shaped domes are charcoal furnaces used to heat and melt ore mined from nearby Paramillos. In 1817, General San Martín passed through the area on his way to liberate Chile from the Spanish, and according to locals, used Las Bóvedas served as his headquarters and to create cannons for his campaign. While there hasn’t been much evidence found of this, just a suggested connection to the national hero was enough to spark interest in preserving the site. Today, it houses a small (but free!) museum where you can learn about the facility’s metallurgic history, and the 1817 campaign to liberate Chile.