Where someone departed, someone lights a candle
Animitas are small roadside shrines built where a person died suddenly. animita.cl gathers them in an atlas, tells their stories and explains the tradition behind them.
- animitas in the atlas
- 5
- regions
- 4
Featured animitas
See all in the atlasÉmile Dubois
The grave of a man sentenced to death whom Valparaíso turned into a folk saint, covered in plaques and candles in the Playa Ancha cemetery.
Evaristo Montt
The animita of a railway worker killed in 1924 when a locomotive exploded, which Antofagasta still visits a century later.
Romualdito
One of the oldest and most visited animitas in Santiago, a stretch of wall covered in thank-you plaques beside the Estación Central railway station.
Latest stories
StoriesA wall of thanks
Opposite the Estación Central railway station, thousands of plaques each tell a different story. They all begin with the same word.
Kilometres of memory
On Route 5 North, animitas mark the road as much as the signs do. A journey through Chile's longest landscape of mourning.
Those who light the candles
Behind every animita still standing there is someone who looks after it. A portrait of the anonymous keepers of folk memory.
Routes to visit
Santiago, from Estación Central to the General Cemetery3 stops · 12 km (mostly by metro)Do you know an animita?
The atlas is built with the help of the people who care for and visit them. Tell us where it is, what you know about its story and, if you can, send us a photo.
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