Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi

Pinochet's most notorious detention centre in Santiago — now a memorial park and museum commemorating over 4,500 prisoners.

Villa Grimaldi in Santiago was the most notorious interrogation and torture centre operated by DINA, Pinochet's secret police, between 1974 and 1978. An estimated 4,500 political prisoners were held here; at least 240 of them were killed or disappeared. After the dictatorship ended, the site was not demolished but transformed into a memorial park — the Park for Peace. Today it houses a museum with documents and personal testimonies commemorating the victims and promoting human rights education. A visit is sobering, essential, and deeply affecting.