Punta Carretas, Montevideo: Lighthouse, Old Prison and Rambla

The Penitentiary, 1915 to 1986

The penitentiary opened in 1915 with 400 cells for common and high-risk prisoners. Few people wanted to live near a jail, so the district stayed empty and the barrio only grew in the 1950s, once the city had built all around it. Between 1968 and 1985 the prison held more than 800 political prisoners.

The end came after a riot late in 1986. The jail was emptied and closed, and the building stood empty while its future was argued over. What visitors see today on José Ellauri is that second life, but the arch and façade remember the first.

Two Tunnels: 1931 and 1971

Two escapes made the prison famous. On 18 March 1931 came the fuga de la carbonería, the charcoal seller's escape. The anarchists Miguel Arcángel Roscigna and Gino Gatti ran a firewood and charcoal shop as a front, and dug from the shop to the prison toilets.

Forty years later, on 6 September 1971, came El Abuso. That night 111 prisoners left, 106 guerrillas and 5 common prisoners, through a 45 m tunnel from cell 73 to a house at Solano García 2535. Among them were José Mujica, later president of Uruguay, and Raúl Sendic.

The record says not a shot was fired, and the escape entered the Guinness Book of Records.

The Mall in the Old Walls

An Italian real-estate consortium bought the site, and conversion work began in the early 1990s. Punta Carretas Shopping opened on 14 July 1994 at José Ellauri 350, keeping the main arch and the whole exterior façade of the prison. Today there are three floors, more than 200 shops, a food court, cinemas, exchange offices and a children's play area, and the Sheraton tower joined the complex in 1999.

A semi-open extension called Boulevard is the newest addition. On the forecourt, the memorial was declared one of Uruguay's a Site of Memory in 2021. Hours are 10:00 to 21:00 per the mall's own site.

See our guide to shopping in the city for the rest.

Tax Free on Goods

Tax Free is valid all year at participating shops, and it is for non-resident tourists only. The paperwork is done at the till at the moment of purchase, so ask before you pay. The refund itself is claimed at marked booths when you leave Uruguay, through a listed exit: Carrasco and Laguna del Sauce airports, the ports of Montevideo and Colonia, the Punta del Este cruise terminal, and the border bridges to Argentina and Chuy.

No minimum purchase or refund percentage is posted, so ask the shop to write the figures on the form. Ferry passengers to Buenos Aires leave from the Montevideo port, so plan the paperwork around the ferry from Buenos Aires, and fly out through Carrasco International Airport if that is your exit.

The VAT Cut at the Table

The second saving needs no paperwork at all. Pay at restaurants, bars and cafés with a foreign-issued card or e-money and 9 percentage points come off the VAT, until 30 April 2027. The same cut applies to car rental without a driver, catering and event services, and tastings at registered wineries.

At Punta Carretas Shopping, that means the food court and the mall restaurants when you tap a foreign card. Hotels are separate again: non-residents who show a foreign ID pay no VAT on the room, invoiced without the tax, so there is nothing to claim back. Check the small print in our Uruguay currency guide.

The two savings side by side, as the tourism ministry and the decree describe them.

Faro de Punta Brava

Sailors called the point Punta Brava, the bold point, because it runs on under water and wrecked ships. The cart-shaped rocks gave the barrio its other name, Punta Carretas, the carts point. The lighthouse was inaugurated on 1 October 1876, became State-owned in 1907, and has flashed white and red alternately every 10 seconds since 1948.

It went on the electric grid in 1962. The Intendencia calls its spot the southernmost point of Montevideo, and fishing boats still use it. The lighthouse itself is a National Monument and no climbing hours are posted, so the visit is the rocks, the small harbour and the sunset over the old city skyline.

Free, all day.

The Holocaust Memorial

Along Rambla Presidente Wilson stands the Holocaust memorial, a 120 m wall running parallel to the river. A gap opens between two granite blocks, and that absence carries the message. It was inaugurated in 1994 and declared a National Historic Monument.

There is no gate and no ticket. It is free to see from the promenade, on the stretch between the lighthouse and the golf course. The memorial sits in a stretch of rambla that also holds a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, so the walk from the golf course to the lighthouse passes both.

Club de Golf del Uruguay

The golf club was founded on 24 May 1922, on land where a hippodrome ran from 1880 to 1890. The course was designed by Alister Mackenzie and it plays 18 holes over 6,635 yards squeezed along the rambla. It was declared a National Historic Monument in 1975.

It is a private social and sports club, so most visitors see the course from the rambla, which runs along its seaward edge.

Castillo Pittamiglio

The castle on the rambla was built by Humberto Pittamiglio, an architect and alchemist who worked from the family house on Francisco Vidal street towards the river from about 1910 until his death in 1966. Alchemical symbols cover the building, and the styles run from Renaissance to medieval to cubist. It now operates as Universo Pittamiglio, a cultural centre since September 2021, at Rambla Mahatma Gandhi 633.

Hours are Tuesday to Friday 11:00-17:00 and Saturday and Sunday 15:30-19:30, with guided visits on Saturdays at 16:00. Entry is paid, but no price is posted online, so ask at the door or call +598 2713 5915.

Feria de Villa Biarritz

The Villa Biarritz fair runs on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 9:00 into the afternoon, in Parque Juan Zorrilla de San Martín at José Ellauri 602. Stalls sell crafts, clothing, accessories and fruit and vegetables, a neighbourhood market rather than a tourist one. The park is the green square that gives the Villa Biarritz corner of the barrio its name, on the same José Ellauri street as the mall.

Note that closing times are given variously as 15:30 or 16:00. For the city's other markets and fairs, see our Montevideo shopping page.

Museo Zorrilla and the Church

Facing the rocky shore stands the house of Juan Zorrilla de San Martín. The house was finished in 1922, passed to the State in 1936 and opened as a museum on 26 February 1943. Nearby stands the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Sagrado Corazón, the barrio's church, neo-Romanesque and built between 1917 and 1927, first run by Capuchin friars.

Its tower is still the landmark of the barrio. No hours are posted online for either, so treat both as pass-by stops on the walk.

A Base Between Two Beaches

After the mall opened in 1994, international hotel chains, restaurants and apartment towers followed, and Punta Carretas settled into its current form as an upper-middle-class residential barrio. Playa Ramírez lies to the west by Parque Rodó, and Pocitos beach opens to the east. Day trips collect here too, which matters if you are planning further afield: the Colonia del Sacramento day trip picks up in Punta Carretas at 8:20, and the Punta del Este day trip picks up at 8:40.

Compare our picks for Montevideo hotels before you book, and remember non-residents pay no VAT on the room.

Getting Here

City buses run on the STM system. A 1-hour ticket costs $1.29 (UYU 52) with the STM card or $1.59 (UYU 64) in cash, and a 2-hour ticket costs $1.94 (UYU 78) with the card. The first STM card is free and the minimum top-up is $2.48 (UYU 100), so get one at your first stop and reuse it.

The tourist option is the hop-on hop-off bus, which lists Punta Carretas Shopping among its stops, with a 24-hour pass at $25. From the ferry and cruise terminal, the mall is a bus ride east of the old city.

Safety After Dark

Punta Carretas is a residential barrio, and the UK government advice for Montevideo applies here too. Avoid isolated or poorly lit areas at night, use ATMs inside malls or banks rather than on the street, and know that car break-ins are common, so leave nothing visible. The mall keeps exchange offices, which is handy if you arrive with dollars and want pesos after dark.

Walk the rambla with the crowd at sunset rather than alone late, and read our fuller guide on whether Montevideo is safe before you plan evening walks.

- A future president walked out of the mall's tunnel. José Mujica, later president of Uruguay, was among the 111 who escaped through the 45 m tunnel in 1971 (Wikipedia). - The escape is in the Guinness Book of Records, entered for the scale of the 1971 breakout (Wikipedia). - The mall kept its prison face. The main arch and the exterior façade of the 1915 penitentiary were kept when the shopping centre opened in 1994 (Descubrí Montevideo). - The memorial on the mall's forecourt was declared one of Uruguay's Sites of Memory in 2021 (Wikipedia). - The lighthouse has flashed in two colours since 1948, alternating white and red every 10 seconds (Wikipedia).

A half day works well: lighthouse at sunset, then the rambla east to Pocitos and dinner near the beach. A rainy day is just as easy, the mall swallows hours of shopping, food court and cinema behind the old prison arch. With more time, pair the barrio with Parque Rodó next door or the full walk of the rambla.

If you are building a longer list of things to do in Montevideo, put Punta Carretas after the old city, and browse Montevideo tours if you would rather see it from a bus or a guide's van.