page_title: Agustín Ross Cultural Centre
section_title: In popular culture
hierarchical_section_title: Agustín Ross Cultural Centre / In popular culture
caption_attribution_description: English: Sign of the entrance to the Grotto of the Virgin.
context_page_description: Agustín Ross Cultural Centre, previously known as Casino Ross, is the cultural center of the city of Pichilemu in Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region, Chile. It was constructed between 1906 and 1909 at the request of politician Agustín Ross Edwards. The structure of the cultural center is very similar to that of the Grand Trianon in Versailles, France.
  It is best known for housing one of the first casinos of Chile; a casino operated in the building between 1917 and 1931. After 1931 all casinos, except the newly opened Casino de Viña del Mar, were declared illegal. The building has also been used as a post office, a store selling imported goods, a hotel, a discotheque, and a bar. There were two attempts by the local government to purchase the building; the first time in 1982 failed while the second in 1995 succeeded. The former casino was declared a National Monument of Chile along with the Agustín Ross Park in February 1988.
  Over time, the building deteriorated, and a project was approved in January 2007 for it to be renovated for use as a cultural center. The restored building opened in January 2009 and houses the local library.
context_section_description: There is a popular myth surrounding the former casino which tells of "underground caves" between the Gruta de la Virgen (also known as the Gruta de Nuestra Señora de Lourdes; Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes) and the building, crossing Agustín Ross Park. During the restoration of the building, in December 2007, it was reported that "two great walls constructed with flagstone, very wide and very close together" were found, but nothing was confirmed afterwards.
  Before the former casino building was completed, in 1908, Agustín Ross Edwards and Evaristo Merino reported to historiographer José Toribio Medina the existence of indigenous remains in the cave now called the Gruta de la Virgen. Medina asked Argentinean ethnographer Félix Faustino Outes to inspect the remains, and subsequently Medina wrote the book Los Restos Indígenas de Pichilemu (The Indigenous Remains of Pichilemu), using the report Faustino Outes gave him.
  American writer Trudy Larkin Forster wrote the book Los Gatos del Casino: la Historia de Don Agustín Ross Edwards y la Brigada de los Gatos Negros (The Cats of the Casino: the History of Sir Agustín Ross Edwards and the Brigade of the Black Cats) in 1999. The book is set in Pichilemu and the Agustín Ross Casino, and it was premiered in the Children's Book Fair of Santiago in June 1999, and then in the Agustín Ross Art Room (in current Centro Cultural Agustín Ross) on 18 September of that year.
caption: Sign at the entrance to the Gruta de la Virgen.
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