Víctor Jara Stadium

Stadium and memorial in one: the Estadio Víctor Jara was a detention camp of the Pinochet dictatorship in 1973 — and today bears the name of its most famous victim.

The Estadio Víctor Jara in western Santiago, near the Estación Central, now bears the name of Chilean singer and activist Víctor Jara, who was murdered here in 1973. The stadium was inaugurated in 1949 in rationalist style as the "Estadio Chile" and holds around 6,500 people. After the military coup of 11 September 1973 under Augusto Pinochet it was used in the first weeks as a detention camp: thousands of political prisoners were held, tortured and killed here. Among them was Víctor Jara, whose hands were broken before he was shot — one of the best-known cases of the Chilean dictatorship. The stadium has borne his name since 2004. Today it is once again used for sport and cultural events, but also serves as a memorial to the victims of the dictatorship.