Banco de Chile was created in October 1893 through the merger of Bank of Valparaiso, Chile National Bank and the Agricultural Bank. It began operations in 1894 with two main offices, one in Santiago and another in Valparaiso.
In 1922, when this institution was considered the largest commercial bank in the country, its board decided to build the Headquarters in Ahumada street, on land that had belonged to the Archbishopric of Santiago. construction was commissioned architect Alberto Siegel Lubbe, who designed an imposing neoclassical building, which features a round dome, stairs made of marble and large spaces designed for public attention.
It’s all of lime and brick with a portico of four columns of stone and closed by an elegant iron gate. Inside, a spacious living room houses the different offices.
It has a representative collection of coins and bills of different times and the nation that put them in circulation, such as the Philippines, Brazil and Guatemala.
They emphasize colonial pieces where the ‘macuquinas’ gold and silver realize the first attempts of minting. More elaborate are the currencies of four shields, 1749 or coins minted on the occasion of Independence.
On March 10, 2016, the National Monuments Council approved declared this building as a historical monument.
Paseo Ahumada, 251, Santiago.