Discovering the easternmost Tajamar of Santiago. A preliminary study of a hydraulic engineering work at the end of the colonial period

Abstract

In January 2015, while construction works were carried out on the Architecture Building of the Pontifcal Catholic University of Chile (PUC) in the sector of Providencia (Santiago), a structure of masonry was found. This structure was buried only scarce meters away of Casa Lo Contador (a Chilean traditional large house constructed in 1780 and declared Historic monument) and 300 m approximately to the north of the current
river Mapocho. The target of this study is to carry out a preliminary characterization the above mentioned buried structure. This by an archaeological and historical study which aims will be to asses its relationship with the Tajamares constructed by the architect Joaquín Toesca at the end of the colonial period in the city of Santiago. It is concluded that this structure would have correspond to a tajamar (riverwall) built in the context of the colonial engineering works at the end of the XVIII century and which main function was the containment of the outputs of the Mapocho river. This tajamar would have presented specifc architectural and building characteristics adapted to a peripheral sector of the city, resulting this in some differences between this tajamar and those found in the cutwaters of Toesca.