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The Plaza de Armas of the city of Iquique or simply Arturo Prat Square is the main square of the homonymous city in the Tarapacá Region, Chile, which is constituted in an agglutinating heritage zone of several buildings listed as historical monuments: the Clock Tower, the Tarapacá Employee Protective Society Building and the Municipal Theater, which together are one of the most representative urban expressions of the salt flat period next to the Spanish Casino and the Croatian Club.

It belongs to the set of national monuments of Chile since 1977 under D. 935 of November 25 of the same year; It is in the 'Typical Zone' category.



History
After the expansion of salt flat production during the second half of the 19th century, Iquique experienced an unprecedented economic boom that transformed its urban center significantly; after the destruction of an important part of these as a result of several fires and earthquakes. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the buildings that “give Iquique the architectural and urban imprint that it still has today” began to rise in the city.



The city experienced some of its greatest architectural-urban transformations during the 1880s and 1920s, at which time some of the heritage buildings surrounding the main square survived. It should be noted that after the fire of October 1880, the square was extended - which is already known as Prat Square - to the south and west, annexing blocks that had been destroyed by the incident.