THE CAPITALINO MUSEUM OPENS ITS DOORDS AT THE PALACIO COUSIÑO IN SANTIAGO, CHILE
Santiago inaugurates its Capitalino Museum to celebrate Heritage Day in the country, May 28 of this year. Kalam has recovered this emblematic building, an icon of the Belle Époque and built as a commission of the wealthy businessman Luis Cousiño and his wife, Isadora Goyenechea. It is one of the most luxurious palaces built in Chile at the end of the 19th century.
Designed by the French architect Paul Lathoud, and built between 1870 and 1878, it was closed for damage suffered during the earthquake of 2010. You can already visit its ornate interiors, with its conserved original tapestries and furniture, which have been carefully restored.
This intervention has prioritized structural stability, incorporating a new mooring chain in the coronation, in addition to the fixing of the decorative elements, including the beautiful Italian majolica ceramics that decorate most of the facades. The restoration has recovered the original colouring of the rooms, after a detailed study of the superimposed pictorial layers to faithfully reproduce the natural appearance of the walls. Kalam has also worked on units annexed to the palace, such as the beautiful greenhouse, where the metal structure and glass have been restored, the administration building or the service building.
