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Gargoyle and Grotesques of Casa de Las Gárgolas, Santiago, Chile

Categories: Gargoyle of the Day

By Paulo Andrés Gómez Araya (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I was scrolling through a set of gargoyle photos in order to find today’s gargoyle, and I was a little surprised to find a category entitled “Gargoyles of Chile”. This curious creature is from the Casa de Las Gárgolas (House of Gargoyles, since gárgola means gargoyle in Spanish) in Santiago. I didn’t find much about this location except for this Spanish-language Wikipedia article, which tells us that the Casa is a Neo-Gothic house designed by Eduardo Castobal Zegers in the late 1920s and declared a Chilean National Monument in 2001. (At least that’s what I think it says; my Spanish is not particularly strong.) Below is a photograph of the Casa’s exterior.

By Warko (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Tags: gargoyles, grotesques, mansion, South American

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One response to “Gargoyle and Grotesques of Casa de Las Gárgolas, Santiago, Chile”

Barb Drummond

May 22, 2015

Sorry, but this is not strictly speaking a gargoyle. They carry water away from the building. the term is cognate with gargle. What you have is more a grotesque or a monster.

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The mission of A Scholarly Skater Art History is to make historical art and architecture accessible to everyone.
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An important note

Art history is an inherently subjective field, and my perspective isn’t the only one. I encourage all my readers to seek out differing opinions and read multiple sources to get a broader and more complete view of this complex and fascinating field of study. Read my disclaimers for more information.