Plaza Sotomayor

The principal civic square of the port city of Valparaíso, this plaza opens toward the harbor and is dominated by the former naval headquarters, a grand blue-and-white building. At its center stands the Monument to the Heroes of Iquique, honoring naval figures of a nineteenth-century sea battle, with a crypt beneath. The square connects the flat port district to the steep hills laced with funiculars that define the city. Cruise passengers and sailors cross its paving, the gateway between the sea and the UNESCO-listed old town.