Punta Arenas grew from a penal colony of 1848 into the richest port south of Valparaíso, funded by sheep, gold and every ship rounding the Horn before 1914. Its palaces, mission museums and mausoleums record that boom — and the Selk'nam it erased.
The Salesian missionaries' 1893 collection holds the deepest record of Selk'nam, Kawésqar and Aónikenk life: guanaco-hide capes, harpoons, Hain ceremony photographs by Martin Gusinde. Open Tue–Sun 10:00–12:30 and 15:00–17:30.
Open-air museum on the University of Magallanes campus, 4 km north. Reassembled 1880s–1920s estancia buildings: shearing shed, wheelwright's shop, blacksmith forge and the wooden wagons that opened the pampa. Mon–Fri 08:30–18:00.
The Salesian church and school complex from 1892 was the base for the missions to Isla Dawson, where hundreds of Selk'nam were relocated and died of disease. The interior carries Italian-carved altars shipped around the Horn. Free entry.
Beyond the cypress avenues stands the small monument to the Selk'nam and Kawésqar, near the graves of nameless Indigenous people brought from Tierra del Fuego. A sharp counterpoint to the marble mausoleums of the estancieros nearby.
Mauricio Braun's 1905 mansion, built with French furniture and Italian marble from the wool fortune. Rooms remain as the family left them — billiard room, winter garden, English bathrooms. Open daily except Tuesday, 10:30–17:00.
Croatian miners arrived from Dalmatia in the 1890s gold rush and became a third of the city. Their club, bakeries and the Sokol hall still line calle Croacia; family names are legible on half the shopfronts in the centre.
The navy's museum documents the 1916 Shackleton rescue of the Endurance crew by the tug Yelcho, plus Strait pilotage and shipwrecks. A full bridge reconstruction sits on the upper floor. Tue–Sat 09:30–12:30, 15:00–18:00.
The 1930s pier where wool clippers and coal steamers loaded. Nearby stands the memorial to Piloto Pardo's crew, who sailed the Yelcho to Elephant Island and brought back all 22 stranded men without a single loss.
Chile's 1843 claim on the Strait, rebuilt as a log stockade 60 km south. Adjacent is Puerto del Hambre, where Sarmiento de Gamboa's 1584 Spanish colony of 300 starved to death within three years. Park open 09:00–19:00 in summer.
The small Jewish cemetery, consecrated 1910, serves families who came from Odessa and Bessarabia to trade in the port. Headstones in Hebrew, Russian and Spanish trace a community that peaked near 400 people before mid-century departure.
José Menéndez's 1878 sheep estate, once 100,000 hectares, now a national monument 120 km north-east. Company store, chapel, shearing sheds and the beached hulks of the Amadeo steamer and Ambassador clipper on the shore.
Sara Braun's 1895 French neoclassical palace became the members' club of the wool aristocracy. The bar in the former cellar still serves under the original vaults; the ballroom and parquet floors are open to visitors.