Iron plates
Walls, roof and balconies.
DiverDave — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Maurice Chédel — CC BY 3.0 · Julian71444 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Carlos Correa Loyola — CC BY-SA 2.0
An odd two-storey house made entirely of iron plates, its walls, roof and balconies, which reached Iquitos in pieces across the Atlantic and up the Amazon in 1890, during the «rubber boom», when the city suddenly grew rich from the wild-rubber trade. People call it the «Eiffel House», as local tradition credits its design to Gustave Eiffel of the famous Paris tower, but historians doubt the link. Whatever its origin, it is among the oldest prefabricated houses in the Americas and a symbol of Iquitos. The house stands on a corner of the main square, with a long iron balcony along its upper floor and small shops beneath. The square also has other rubber-era houses, a fountain and trees, and it gets busy in the evening when the heat eases. Iquitos is the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road, island cities aside, so it is reached only by plane or by boat along the rivers. That is why its streets are full of three-wheeled motorcycle taxis rather than cars. Health authorities recommend a yellow fever vaccine for Peru's Amazon, and the Loreto region carries a malaria risk, so see your doctor before travelling and bring strong insect repellent.
Walls, roof and balconies.
Sudden wealth.
Lively at night.
Corner of Próspero and Putumayo streets, Plaza de Armas, central Iquitos
Local tradition says so, hence the name «Eiffel House», but historians doubt it. What is certain is that it is a prefabricated iron house that reached Iquitos in 1890.
