Sewell Mining Town
A complete company city frozen in time at 2,000 metres altitude in the Chilean Andes — 150 brightly painted wooden buildings connected by staircases rather than roads, built to house workers of the world’s largest underground copper mine.
At a glance
Sewell is one of the most unusual abandoned cities on Earth. Clinging to a near-vertical Andean slope at 2,000 metres altitude above the El Teniente copper mine, it was built in 1905 by the Braden Copper Company as a complete self-contained world for its workers. Because the terrain is too steep for roads, Sewell’s buildings are connected entirely by staircases — nearly 1,000 steps in total. At its peak in the 1940s, approximately 15,000 people lived here. By 1977 it was entirely empty. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, accessible only by company bus on Saturday mornings.
Key facts
- Location: O’Higgins Region, Chile — 34°5′4″S, 70°21′31″W; altitude approx. 2,000 m
- Founded: 1905 by Braden Copper Company; later operated by Anaconda Copper, then CODELCO
- Peak population: approx. 15,000 (1940s); abandoned 1977
- UNESCO inscription: 2006, as part of the Sewell Mining Town WHS
- Mine: El Teniente — the largest underground copper mine in the world (still operating)
- Notable feature: No internal roads — all movement between buildings via ~1,000 steps of staircases
- Access: Guided tour by company bus only, Saturday mornings from Rancagua
History
In 1905, the American Braden Copper Company began extracting copper from the El Teniente ore body — one of the richest in the Andes — and faced an immediate problem: how to house a workforce of thousands in a mountain with no flat ground. Their solution was Sewell, a planned company town engineered directly into the slope. Buildings were placed on terraced ledges; the connecting infrastructure was not streets but staircases. The company built everything: a hospital, school (reputed to be the best in the entire Andes region), cinema, bowling alley, church, supermarket, a club for executives and a strictly separate club for workers (company hierarchy was enforced architecturally). Workers came from Chile, Yugoslavia, the United States, and Bolivia.
At peak production in the 1940s, approximately 15,000 people lived in Sewell — making it a significant Andean city by any measure. The intense primary colours of the buildings (red, yellow, orange, blue) were not aesthetic choice but operational necessity: in blizzard conditions at altitude, workers needed to identify buildings by colour when visibility dropped to metres.
In 1967, CODELCO — the Chilean state company that had taken over El Teniente — began relocating workers and their families down to Rancagua in the valley below to improve living conditions. By 1977, Sewell was completely empty. The mine itself never stopped: El Teniente continues operating to this day, an underground city of tunnels expanding year by year beneath and around the abandoned surface town. UNESCO inscribed Sewell as a World Heritage Site in 2006.
What you see
The visual impact of Sewell is unlike anything else in the world. Approximately 150 wooden buildings — painted in the original intense primary colours — are stacked on nearly vertical terrain against an Andean backdrop of snow-capped peaks. From certain angles, the town appears to be a painting rather than a built structure: a vertical grid of red, yellow, and orange facades rising up a mountain face. The buildings themselves are simple but complete: two- and three-storey timber-frame structures with pitched roofs to shed Andean snow, arranged around a central plaza which is itself accessible only via staircase. Several structures have been partially restored; others survive in preserved decay, their paint weathered but still vivid in the high-altitude light. The El Teniente mine entrance — still active — is visible from the town.
Practical information
- Access: By CODELCO company bus only, departing from Rancagua on Saturday mornings. Independent access is not permitted — the mine is an active industrial site.
- Booking: Via CODELCO’s tour operator (advance reservation required; tours fill quickly in peak season)
- Duration: Half-day tours typical; full-day tours available including mine visit
- Altitude: 2,000 metres — allow acclimatisation time if arriving from sea level; take water and dress for cold
- Photography: Permitted in designated areas; restrictions apply near active mine infrastructure
Getting there
All visits begin in Rancagua, the provincial capital of O’Higgins Region, 87 km south of Santiago. Rancagua is reached by Metrotrén or intercity bus from Santiago (approx. 1 hour). The CODELCO tour bus departs from Rancagua’s Estación de Tren area on Saturday mornings. No private vehicle access to Sewell is possible — the only road to the mine is controlled by CODELCO. Santiago’s international airport (SCL) connects directly to Rancagua by train.
Nearby
- Rancagua — provincial capital, 87 km north; base for Sewell tours; historic Plaza de Los Héroes
- Reserva Nacional Río de los Cipreses — national reserve 50 km southeast; Andean scenery and trekking
- Santiago — 87 km north; international gateway, Pre-Columbian Art Museum, Barrio Italia
Sources
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