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Banco de Guatemala
More rewarding than you'd think is a visit to the Banco de Guatemala. The bank building bears relief sculptures by Dagoberto Vásquez depicting his country's history;
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Casa MIMA
The Casa MIMA is a wonderfully presented museum and cultural center set in a house dating from the late 1800s. The owners of the house were collectors with eclectic tastes ranging from French neo-Rococo, Chinese, and art deco to indigenous artifacts. The place is set up like a functioning house, filled with curios and furniture spanning the centuries.
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Catedral Metropolitana
The Catedral Metropolitana, facing Parque Central, was constructed between 1782 and 1815 (the towers were finished in 1867). It has survived earthquake and fire well, though the quake of 1917 did substantial damage and the one in 1976 did even more. Its heavy proportions and sparse ornamentation don't make for a particularly beautiful building, but it does have a certain stateliness, and the altars are worth a look.
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Centro Cívico
The Centro Cívico is a set of large government and institutional buildings constructed during the 1950s and '60s.
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Centro Cultural Metropolitano
On the first floor of the Palacio de Correos you'll find the Centro Cultural Metropolitano, a surprisingly avant-garde cultural center, hosting art exhibitions, book launches, handicraft workshops and film nights.
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Estadio Nacional Mateo Flores
Estadio Nacional Mateo Flores is the national stadium.
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Jardín Botánico
The Universidad de San Carlos has a large, lush Jardín Botánico on the northern edge of Zona 10. Admission includes entry to the university's Museo de Historia Natural
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La Aurora Zoo
La Aurora Zoo is not badly kept as zoos go, and the lovely, park-like grounds alone are worth the admission fee. If you're traveling with children, this could be a good option.
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Mapa en Relieve
It's worth venturing along to Parque Minerva to see the Mapa en Relieve, a huge open-air map of Guatemala showing the country at a scale of 1:10,000. The vertical scale is exaggerated to 1:2000 to make the volcanoes and mountains appear dramatically higher and steeper than they really are. Constructed in 1905 under the direction of Francisco Vela, the Mapa was fully restored and repainted in 1999. Viewing towers afford a panoramic view.
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Mercado Central
Until the quake of 1976, Mercado Central, behind the cathedral, was where locals shopped for food and other necessities. Reconstructed after the earthquake, it now deals in colorful Guatemalan handicrafts such as textiles, carved wood, metalwork, pottery, leather goods and basketry, and is a pretty good place to shop for these kinds of things, with reasonable prices.
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Municipalidad de Guatemala
Municipalidad de Guatemala the city hall contains a huge mosaic by Carlos Mérida, completed in 1959.
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Museo de Historia Natural
The university's Museo de Historia Natural is at the same site as the Universidad de San Calos's botanical garden where the admission price covers both.
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Museo de los Niños
Almost opposite the entrance to La Aurora Zoo is the Museo de los Niños, a hands-on affair that is a sure success if you have kids to keep happy. The fun ranges from a giant jigsaw-map of Guatemala to a Lego room and, most popular of all, a room of original and entertaining ball games.
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Museo Ixchel
The Museo Ixchel is named for the Mayan goddess of the moon, women, reproduction and, of course, textiles. Photographs and exhibits of indigenous costumes and other crafts show the incredible richness of traditional arts in Guatemala's highland towns. If you enjoy Guatemalan textiles at all, you must visit this museum. It has disabled access, a section for children, a café, a shop and a library, and guided tours are available in English or Spanish.
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Museo Miraflores
Museo Miraflores is an excellent, modern museum inauspiciously jammed between two shopping malls a few kilometers out of town. Downstairs focuses on objects found at Kaminaljuyú, with fascinating trade route maps showing the site's importance.
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Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología
The Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología has the country's biggest collection of ancient Mayan artifacts, but explanatory information is very sparse. There's a great wealth of monumental stone sculpture, including Classic-period stelae from Tikal, Uaxactún and Piedras Negras, a superb throne from Piedras Negras and animal representations from preclassic Kaminaljuyú.
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Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno
Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno has a collection of 20th-century Guatemalan art including works by well-known Guatemalan artists such as Carlos Mérida, Carlos Valente and Humberto Gavarito.
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Museo Nacional de Historia
The Museo Nacional de Historia is a jumble of historical relics with an emphasis on photography and portraits. Check the carefully manicured hairstyles of the 19th-century generals and politicos.
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Museo Nacional de Historia Natural Jorge Ibarra
This museum's main claim to fame is its large collection of dissected animals.
Read more about Museo Nacional de Historia Natural Jorge Ibarra
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Museo Popol Vuh
Museo Popol Vuh has well-displayed pre-Hispanic figurines, incense burners and burial urns, plus carved wooden masks and traditional textiles, fill several rooms. Other rooms hold colonial paintings and gilded wood and silver artifacts. A faithful copy of the Dresden Codex, one of the precious 'painted books' of the Maya, is among the most interesting pieces, and there's a colorful display of animals in Mayan art.
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Palacio de Justicia
The Palacio de Justicia lies nearby the Centro Cívico
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Palacio Nacional de la Cultura
The imposing Palacio Nacional de la Cultura lies on the north side of the Parque Central. It was built as a presidential palace between 1936 and 1943 during the dictatorial rule of General Jorge Ubico at enormous cost to the lives of the prisoners who were forced to labor here. It's the third palace to stand on the site.
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Parque Arqueológico Kaminaljuyú
The Parque Arqueológico Kaminaljuyú, with remnants of one of the first important cities in the Mayan region, is just west of 23a Av and is some 4km west of the city center. At its peak, from about 400 BC to AD 100, ancient Kaminaljuyú had thousands of inhabitants and scores of temples built on earth mounds, and probably dominated much of highland Guatemala.
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Parque Central
The Parque Central, officially the Plaza de la Constitución, is an excellent starting point to begin your journey onto other sights, which are grouped around here. The standard colonial urban-planning scheme required every town in the New World to have a large plaza for military exercises and ceremonies. On the north side of the plaza was usually the palacio de gobierno (colonial government headquarters). On another side, preferably the east, would be a church (or cathedral).
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Railway Museum
The Railway Museum is one of the city's more intriguing museums (and the only one with a Domino's Pizza attached). Documented here are the glory days of the troubled Guatemalan rail system, along with some quirky artifacts, like hand-drawn diagrams of derailments and a kitchen set up with items used in dining cars. You can go climbing around the passenger carriages, but not the locomotives. It's between 9a and 10a Avs.
Showing 1-25 of 25 results
