The Humberstone and Santa Laura plants involve more than 200 former saltpeter factories where personnel from Chile, Peru and Bolivia lived in commercial cities and forged a network culture distinct from that of the Pampinos. This culture manifests itself in its rich language, creativity and solidarity and, above all, in its pioneering struggle for social justice, which has had a profound impact on social history. Located in the remote Pampa, one of the driest deserts on the planet, thousands of pampinos lived and worked in this hostile environment for more than 60 years, starting in 1880, to exploit the world’s largest saltpeter deposit, generating the sodium nitrate fertilizer that was transforming farmland in North and South America. as well as in Europe, and producing wonderful riches for Chile. Due to the structures and the impact of a recent earthquake, the site was also inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger to help mobilize resources for its conservation.
The factories of Humberstone and Santa Laura constitute more than two hundred ancient saltpeter deposits, where personnel from Chile, Peru and Bolivia lived in mining towns and forged an unusual Pampino culture. This culture is manifested in the richness of the language, the creativity and the bonds of solidarity, and above all in the pioneering struggles of the Pampinos for social justice, struggles that had a profound impact on social history. Settled in the remote desert of the Pampas, one of the driest in the world, thousands of people lived and worked, from 1880 and for more than sixty years, in a hostile environment to exploit the largest saltpeter deposit in the world and produce sodium nitrate, a fertilizer that would reshape the agricultural landscape of North and South America. as well as that of Europe, while offering a wonderful wealth to Chile.
亨伯斯通和圣劳拉硝石采石场遗址由200多个以前的采矿点组成，来自智利、秘鲁和玻利维亚的工人就居住在企业生活区中，形成了独特的社区文化。这种文化体现于丰富的语言、创造力和团结力上，尤其是争取社会公正的先锋精神，这对社会历史有着深远的影响。此处遗址位于地球上最干燥的沙漠之一，偏远的潘帕沙漠地区(desert Pampa)。从1880年开始，成千上万名来自智利、秘鲁和玻利维亚的矿工就在这样恶劣的环境下生活和工作了60多年，开采世界上最大的硝石矿，生产化肥硝酸钠，用于改造北美洲和南美洲以及欧洲的农田，并为智利创造了巨大财富。由于这里的建筑物容易遭到破坏，最近又受到地震影响，这里已列入了《濒危世界遗产名录》，以便募集资源，对其实施保护。
Предприятия Хамберстон и Санта-Лаура включают свыше 200 бывших разработок селитры, где в городках добывающей компании жили рабочие из Чили, Перу и Боливии, формируя характерную культуру проживания «пампинос». Эта культура отличалась богатым языком, духом творчества и солидарности, а более всего – своей борьбой за социальную справедливость, которая оказала глубокое воздействие на дальнейший ход исторических событий в этом регионе. Находясь в отдаленной «пампе» – одной из самых безводных пустынь на земле, тысячи «пампинос» жили и работали в неблагоприятных природных условиях более 60 лет, начиная с 1880 г., чтобы освоить крупнейшее в мире месторождение селитры. Произведенное на этой основе удобрение, которое преобразило сельскохозяйственные земли в Северной и Южной Америке и в Европе, принесло Чили огромное богатство.
The Humberstone and Santa Laura offices have a total of two hundred salt mining sites, where foreign personnel from Chile, Peru and Bolivia live in teams in corporate mining camps. This is where the express netpainting culture of the Pampins is forged, characterized by its creativity, the richness of its linguistic expression, the bonds of solidarity among its members and their pioneering struggle for social justice, which have left a deep mark on the history of social movements. These and other offices located in the Pampas Desert – one of the wildest spaces on the planet and the most hostile to human beings – have accustomed miles of pampinos since 1880 to live and paint in this domain of the city. fertilizer that transforms agriculture in America and Europe, bringing abundant wealth to Chile.
The Humberstone and Santa Laura nitrate mines have more than two hundred voormalige saltpeter factories operating in Chile, Peru and Bolivia in wood for sale. In hun baanbrekende strijd voor social rechtvaardigheid, el aen bige usado op de sociale geschedenis heft gehad. Humberstone and Santa Laura are located in the isolated pampas, one of the worst misfortunes in the region. Vanaf 1880 woonden et werkten duizenden pampinos hier 60 jaar lang om het grand salpeterdepot ter wasld te verwerken tot kaliumnitraat, de landbouwmeststof die Chili grote welvaart bracht.
Short summary
In the remote desert of the Pampas, one of the driest deserts on the planet, thousands of people lived and worked since the early part of the 19th century to exploit the world’s largest deposit of saltpeter, generating the sodium nitrate fertilizer that would be used for farmland. South America and Europe, and produce wonderful wealth for Chile.
The works of Humberstone and Santa Laura are the best preserved and most representative remains of a series of more than two hundred saltpeter factories that existed, all connected through a modern purpose-built railway system, and are a remarkable testimony to the technological progress and global industry that was the cornerstone of the commercial era. In this region, workers, drawn from Chile, Peru and Bolivia to this hostile environment, have lived in commercial cities and forged a network culture specific to the Pampinos, which manifests itself in their rich language, creativity and solidarity, and above all in pioneering struggles for social justice, which have had a profound impact on social history in general.
The commercial heritage evolved from 1872 to the mid-20th century; It is located forty-five kilometers from the port of Iquique in the middle of a desert landscape. The assets cover an area of 573. 48 hectares, with a buffer zone of 1,826. 39 hectares encompassing the two main sites located approximately 1 km apart. These complement each other, as Santa Laura’s retail area is better preserved, while Humberstone has better preserved acreage. Residential and service doleadings.
The site of Santa Laura conserves the remains of the industrial installations that were used for saltpeter processing such as industrial installations and equipment, including the only leaching shed and a saltpeter grinder that remain intact today, installations for manufacturing iodine, for energy production and buildings such as the administration house and the main square. The Humberstone site contains the attributes that express the quality of urban settlements, such as the living quarters, public spaces and the regular grid pattern of the Camp, with a main square around which communal buildings are clustered. Other relevant attributes are the remains of the railway line that linked Santa Laura and Humberstone, the gravel heaps, the construction techniques, architectural styles and materials, in particular the costrón and the Pampa concrete, distinctive construction materials together with the calamine and timber that were brought from other latitudes.
The remains of nitrate mines are also found in the buffer zone, which also serves to preserve the characteristics of the herbaceous environment of the Pampas that illustrate the dating between the built environment and the adaptation to the herbaceous environment.
The two saltpeter works are the most representative remaining vestiges of an industry that transformed the lives of a large proportion of the population of Chile, brought great wealth to the country. The output of the industry, nitrate fertilisers, had indirectly a transforming influence on existing agricultural lands in Europe, and on newly cultivated land in other latitudes and indirectly supported the agricultural revolution of the late 19th century in many parts of the world. The remaining buildings are testimony to the social order and technical processes that drove the industry.
The pioneering social calendar of saltpeter workers’ unions has had far-reaching effects on labor law in Chile and beyond. The unique culture of the Pampinos, which evolved in collaboration with the industry, which expresses the language, the memory of the saltpeter culture and its influence on the social process, today resonates with the local population and is a most vital feature of the property. The position still has a strong symbolic and evocative disposition for the Pampas population, former officials and their families, who use the position. for gatherings and commemorations such as Saltpeter Week.
Criterion (ii): The progression of the saltpeter industry reflects the combination of knowledge, skills, generation and monetary investment of a diverse network of people accumulated throughout South America and Europe. The saltpeter industry is a massive complex of cultural exchange where concepts were temporarily absorbed and exploited. Both works constitute this process.
Criterion (iii): The saltpeter mines and their related advertising villages have evolved into a giant and very distinct urban network with its own language, organization, customs and artistic expressions, as well as a technical entrepreneurial spirit. The two nominated works constitute this unique culture.
Criterion (iv): The saltpeter mines in the north of Chile together became the largest producers of natural saltpeter in the world, transforming the Pampa and indirectly the agricultural lands that benefited from the fertilisers the works produced. The two works represent this transformation process.
Integrity
The attributes at the nucleus of the complex of the two saltpeter works still reflect the key manufacturing processes and social structures and ways of life of these company towns. As opposed to what occurred in many other saltpeter works, Santa Laura and Humberstone were not fully dismantled when they were no longer functional. However, looting, demolition and lack of conservation and maintenance that occurred until the declaration of the site as a National Monument in 1970 compromised the overall integrity of the two works.
Efforts have been made through the State party to address situations that threaten the integrity of the property. Despite this work, interventions are still needed to prevent further erosion of integrity, in addition to repairing the extensive damage that exists in some of the municipalities of Santa Laura. business structures that are still at risk.
The State party emphasizes multidisciplinary research on the vulnerability of tissues and the instability of structures, the evaluation of tissue composition and pathologies, the effect on them of the environmental, edaphic and mechanical situations of structures, in order to identify conservation and maintenance strategies as well as the use and former operation of machinery and buildings.
The buffer zone aims to protect the desert landscape and its dating in the built environment, as well as the remains of even older saltpeter factories and mining camps, adding rail lines and roads, as well as pedestrian paths that give meaning to the landscape. Historical truth of the Saltpeter Municipality (complex of several interdependent nitrate factories). However, no formal buffer zone has been established to monitor and activities taking place in the vicinity to mitigate the visual effects on the environment resulting from new commercial construction.
Authenticity
The two nitrate mines have been better preserved than all the other nitrate mines in the Pampas of northern Chile and what remains at the site is original and original. The few interventions, the absence of additions of architectural elements or structural fabrics from the exterior. or others other than those originally used have contributed to maintaining the originality of the property.
The authenticity of the site is enhanced by its characteristics and its dating in the landscape, which illustrates the profession of the territory in the saltpeter era and strongly evokes the conquest of the desert.
The preservation of the manifestations of intangible attributes of the saltpeter era also contributes to the authenticity of the site. Humberstone is home to the most important commemorative collection of the industry as a whole: Saltpeter Week, which brings together people from all over the Pampas year. ; that is, the ancient saltpeter workers and their descendants.
However, there are important requirements to maintain conditions of authenticity, in light of the nature and vulnerability of fabrics under specific environmental conditions, and to identify interventions that compromise these characteristics.
The heritage is a National Monument in the category of Historical Monuments – the point of greatest heritage coverage in this country. It is administered through a personal entity, the Saltpeter Museum Corporation, under the supervision of the National Monuments Council, a public establishment. Responsible for the coverage of the cultural heritage of Chile. Se has drawn up a control plan 2004-2009 which now wants to be updated. In addition, it will be necessary to ensure and provide the Company with the human and monetary resources necessary for its sustainable implementation.
The formal definition of a buffer zone and the status quo and the application of regulatory measures is also an action that will have to be implemented as a very important measure to protect the desert landscape, either geographically and in terms of what considerations the remains of mining exploration are preserved. and waste transport. Saltpeter in general.
To ensure the conservation of the Outstanding Universal Value, the authenticity and integrity of the property, the priority intervention plan will be implemented, adding the structural consolidation and the recovery of the buildings at risk. Physical conservation will be addressed taking into account the effects of camanchaca – dense and common fog generated across the Pacific Ocean – and its maximum salinity, capable of seriously damaging metals, wood and even stone fabrics. It is obligatory to think conceptually about the authenticity that opens up a coherent space with the replacement of irreparably deteriorated pieces and sections, defining a replacement criterion related to this deterioration, so that they are maintained forever. This will have to be done in addition to covering the fabrics with anti-corrosion treatments.
An essential imperative for the protection, conservation and management of the site is an in-depth knowledge of the techniques, construction systems, and ways of life, exploration systems and the economic conditions at the time. The importance of the technology itself of this exploitation is of great singularity and the complexities of life associated with saltpeter impose a considerable challenge on how it is all interpreted. Also essential is protecting, conserving and managing those artistic elements that are a part of the history of the site whilst it was functioning and being abandoned, such as the “graphic designs” on the walls, and the movable assets.
Year of inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger
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