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This palace, with its steep French roof, looks as if it came from Paris, and in a way it did: the French architect Numa Mayer designed it. Sara Braun came to Punta Arenas as a child, with her Jewish family from Courland, in today's Latvia. She married the Portuguese businessman José Nogueira, rich from shipping, sealing and sheep. He died of tuberculosis in 1893, and two years later the young widow began this house. She ran his businesses and grew the fortune, built on land taken from the Selk'nam. A Historic Monument since 1981, today it holds a hotel and the Club de la Unión.
Source: Wikipedia en español, «Palacio Sara Braun». · Memoria Chilena (Biblioteca Nacional de Chile), «Sara Braun Hamburguer (1862-1955)». · Wikipedia in English, «Sara Braun». · Memoria Chilena (Biblioteca Nacional de Chile), «Sociedad Explotadora de Tierra del Fuego». · Alberto Harambour, article in Cuadernos de Historia (Universidad de Chile), 2018, on sheep-farming colonisation of Selk'nam territory.
