Historic Quarter of the Seaport City of Valparaíso

Valparaíso tumbles down its hills toward the Pacific like an amphitheatre facing the sea. The port boomed in the late 19th century, and its historic quarter keeps the evidence: a self-built vernacular fabric clinging to steep slopes beneath a scatter of church spires, a geometric grid on the narrow plain below, and the famous funicular elevators still hauling residents uphill. UNESCO inscribed the seaport city's historic quarter in 2003.