Santiago — a colonial grid dwarfed by South America's tallest tower

Santiago began on 12 February 1541, when Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia climbed the small hill now called Santa Lucía, surveyed the fertile valley below, and founded Santiago del Nuevo Extremo on the site. Master builder Pedro de Gamboa laid the new settlement out in a Spanish-style grid around what is now the Plaza de Armas, a pattern the city centre still largely follows nearly five centuries later, despite indigenous attacks, floods and repeated earthquakes — most devastatingly in 1647.

That colonial core now sits in the shadow of an unmistakably modern rival: the Gran Torre Santiago, completed in 2014 within the Costanera Center complex. At 300 metres and 64 storeys, designed by Argentine architect César Pelli, it is the tallest building in Latin America and casts a shadow more than a mile long across the city on clear afternoons. From its Sky Costanera observation deck, and from Cerro San Cristóbal's summit statue of the Virgin Mary, visitors get the same view Valdivia originally sought from Santa Lucía — Santiago spread across its valley floor, ringed by the snow-capped Andes.

What the two cameras show

Santiago beyond the webcams

Cerro San Cristóbal: an 880-metre hill with a giant Virgin Mary statue, reached by a funicular dating to 1925.

Sky Costanera: the observation deck atop the Gran Torre Santiago, the tallest viewpoint in South America.

La Moneda: the presidential palace, its history stretching from colonial mint to modern seat of government.

When to watch

Clear winter mornings: for the sharpest views of the snow-capped Andes over the city, before afternoon smog settles into the valley.

Getting there: the Carmen and Curicó intersection sits in downtown Santiago Centro, a short walk from the Plaza de Armas, Chile.