Punta Arenas — Punta Arenas Map Poster & Print

המפה

Punta Arenas Map Poster & Print

Punta Arenas stretches along the western shore of the Strait of Magellan and is one of the southernmost cities in the world. From above, it is a disciplined grid of straight streets and square blocks. The grid runs from the coastline up gentle slopes toward the hills and the Patagonian steppe. The Costanera road follows the shore, and to the east lies the open water of the strait, with Tierra del Fuego on the far side.

The city was founded in 1848 as a Chilean outpost. It prospered as a port on the route between the Atlantic and Pacific before the Panama Canal opened, and later as a centre of the sheep-farming trade. Its central square, Plaza Muñoz Gamero, is laid out around a monument to Magellan. A Punta Arenas map poster shows the plaza at the heart of a regular plan that seems built to hold firm against the wind.

In black and white, the contrast between land and sea is stark. The dense grid stops at a clean coastline, and the strait fills the rest of the frame as a single calm field. Small rivers and ravines come down from the hills and break into the rows of blocks. The result is a graphic image of a city at the edge of the continent.