Like European royalty, Punta Arenas’s first families formed alliances sealed by matrimony, and the Casa Braun-Menéndez (1904) is a classic example: the product of a marriage between Mauricio Braun (Sara’s brother) and Josefina Menéndez Behety (daughter of José Menéndez and María Behety, a major wool-growing family in Argentina—though international borders meant little to wool barons).

Still furnished with the family’s belongings, preserving Mauricio Braun’s office and other rooms virtually intact, the house boasts marble fireplaces and other elaborate architectural features. The basement servants’ quarters reveal the classic upstairs-downstairs division of early-20th-century society.

Today, the Casa Braun-Menéndez (Magallanes 949, tel. 061/244216, museomag [at] entelchile [dot] net) serves as the regional museum, replete with pioneer settlers’ artifacts and historical photographs. There are imperfect but readable English descriptions of the exhibits. On some days, a pianist plays beneath the atrium’s stained-glass skylight.

November–April, the Casa Braun-Menéndez is open 10 a.m.–5 p.m. daily except for major holidays; the rest of the year, it closes at 2 p.m. Admission costs US$2 for adults, US$1 for children.