La Serena
— — a white city the desert hands to the sea.
Not only on a wall.
“A neocolonial port on the Pacific, the second-oldest city in Chile, founded in 1544. Whitewashed walls, bell towers, a long beach running south toward Coquimbo. The Elqui Valley opens inland behind the city, dry and clear, and the world's largest professional observatories sit a few hours up the road. Palm-lined plazas, the cathedral on Plaza de Armas, papayas and pisco in the markets. A summer city for Santiaguinos in January, a quiet provincial capital the rest of the year.
La Serena, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
La Serena is the capital of the Coquimbo Region in north-central Chile, at the mouth of the Elqui River where the Atacama transition begins. The city was founded by Juan Bohón under orders from Pedro de Valdivia on 26 August 1544, making it the second-oldest city in Chile after Santiago. The 2017 census recorded a population of about 221,000 in the commune, with the La Serena-Coquimbo conurbation over 450,000. The city sits roughly 470 kilometres north of Santiago and 90 metres above sea level at its central plaza.
La Serena's neocolonial centre is the legacy of the Plan Serena, a state-led architectural programme launched in 1948 under President Gabriel González Videla, himself a Serenense. The plan rebuilt the historic core in a unified Spanish-colonial revival style: whitewashed walls, red tile, wrought-iron grilles. The cathedral on the Plaza de Armas, consecrated in 1856, is the visual anchor; the church of San Francisco, finished in the 17th century, holds the city's oldest stone. Twenty-nine churches stand within the historic centre, an unusually high count for a city of its size.
La Serena is reached by the Pan-American Highway from Santiago in about six hours by road, or by a one-hour flight to La Florida Airport on the southern edge of the city. The long Avenida del Mar fronts a series of beaches running south toward Coquimbo, busiest from late December through February when Santiaguinos take the summer break. Inland, the Elqui Valley opens toward Vicuña, the pisco distilleries, and the international observatories at Cerro Tololo and La Silla, both reachable on day trips from the city.