In Chile, a door must be grand. It is not merely a functional object but a statement, sign and often a piece of architecture superior to its walls and roof. Did they take every cue from church and town hall? Even shanty shacks made of mud and cast off Shell petroleum tin cans boast a large timber rectangular with an impressive brass circle. Today we saw a door twice as high as the fence it split, ten feet from the hacienda entrance and a gate surrounding a corridor surrounded on both sides by open space. The doors of institutions in Santiago were the height of five people; in Valparaiso the finest timber appeared cured and humidifed; in the Atacama desert the humblest room boasted an intricate sun for a knocker.
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