Brief Description:
A national government effort to revive the port city through new investments in infrastructure threatens the twenty-four elevators (funiculars) that constitute the defining characteristic of the city as well as one of Chile’s most important industrial-heritage sites.

Nowhere else in the world do elevators exist in such concentration or with as broad a cultural and historical significance. The elevators symbolize Valparaiso’s preeminence as a maritime center, a position that disappeared after the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. Because they are still used to facilitate pedestrian traffic, they foster social interaction among the inhabitants. Many elevators could be lost forever due to their advanced state of deterioration. The absence of a plan unifying community, municipal, and private entities in the effort to appreciate, conserve, and protect the elevators threatens their survival.

Source: World Monuments Fund