Paris y Londres is a quaint neighborhood in Santiago featuring beautiful old buildings, cobblestone streets, and one of the oldest churches in Chile. But tucked along the unsuspecting historical streets is a building with a dark past.

While the building was once the headquarters of the Socialist Party of Chile, from 1973 to 1975 it was the site of the National Intelligence Directorate’s detention center under the Pinochet regime, a dictatorship that ruled over Chile for 17 years, ending in 1990. 

On October 12, 2005, the site was designated as a Historical Monument of Chile and turned into a memorial site, honoring those who were held and tortured there. Plates with the names of the dead and disappeared blend into the cobblestones outside the building’s entrance. 

Inside the building, visitors can explore displays or follow guided tours in Spanish and English detailing the history of the building and people detained there.