Museum sights in South America
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Museo Rafael Larco Herrera
An 18th-century viceroy mansion built on the site of a pre-Columbian pyramid houses the highly recommended privately-run Museo Rafael Larco Herrera , has one of the largest ceramics collections to be found anywhere.
It is said to include over 50,000 pots, many of which were collected in the 1920s by a former vice president of Peru. The first rooms resemble a storeroom, stacked right to the ceilings with an overwhelming jumble of ceramics. Further into the museum, the best pieces are displayed in the uncluttered manner they deserve. They include a selection of gold and silver pieces, feathered textiles and an astonishing Paracas weaving that contains 398 threads to the lin…
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Museo Guayasamín
In the former home of world-famous painter Oswaldo Guayasamín (1919–99), this wonderful museum houses the most complete collection of his work. Guayasamín was also an avid collector, and the museum displays his outstanding collection of more than 4500 pre-Colombian ceramic, bone and metal pieces from throughout Ecuador. The pieces are arranged by theme – bowls, fertility figurines, burial masks etc – rather than by era or cultural group, and the result is one of the most beautifully displayed archaeological collections in the country.
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Museu do Seringal Vila Paraíso
The Museu do Seringal Vila Paraíso is a 25-minute boat ride from Ponta Negra, which is itself a 20-minute bus ride from the center. Fortunately, the trip there is part of the fun, and can be combined with a stop at Praia da Lua, Manaus's best beach. Guided tours include an opulent rubber baron's townhouse and a replica rubber tapper shack, and walking a short trail to see how rubber trees are tapped, and the latex processed in a thatch smoke house.
A bit gimmicky but still interesting, and the only place in Manaus to learn about this all-important history. Boats to the museum (25 minutes) leave frequently from Marina Davi, just past Ponta Negra. Take Bus 011, 012, or 120…
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Museu Histórico Nacional
Housed in the colonial arsenal, which dates from 1764, the impressive Museu Histórico Nacional contains over 250,000 historic relics relating to the history of Brazil from its founding to its early days as a republic. The museum is located near Praça Marechal Âncora and features many well-designed displays, from gilded imperial coaches and the throne of Dom Pedro II to massive oil paintings depicting the horrific combat in the war with Paraguay. There’s some attention paid to Brazil’s indigenous population and to curious relics such as the writing quill that Princess Isabel used to sign the document abolishing slavery in Brazil and a full-sized model of a colonial pharma…
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La Chascona
When poet Pablo Neruda needed a secret hideaway to spend time with his mistress Matilde Urrutia, he built La Chascona, which he named for her unruly hair. Neruda loved the sea (but disliked sailing) so the dining room is modeled on a ship’s cabin and the living room on a lighthouse. Guided tours walk you through the history of the building and the collection of colored glass, shells, furniture and artworks by famous friends that fills it – sadly much more was lost when the house was ransacked during the dictatorship. The Fundación Neruda, which maintains Neruda’s houses, has its headquarters here and runs a swank gift shop and lovely café.
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Museo Nacional de Antropología, Arqueología e Historía del Perú
The Museo Nacional de Antropología, Arqueología e Historía del Perú traces the history of Peru from the Preceramic Period to the early republic. Displays include the famous Raimondi Stela, a 2.1m rock carving from the Chavín culture, one of the first Andean cultures to have a widespread, recognizable artistic style. The building was once the home of revolutionary heroes San Martín (from 1821 to 1822) and Bolívar (from 1823 to 1826) and the museum contains late-colonial and early republic paintings, including an 18th-century rendering of the Last Supper in which Christ and his disciples feast on cuy (guinea pig).
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Museo Histórico Policia
The surprisingly worthwhile Museo Histórico Policia not only gets you inside the lovely ex-HQ (built in 1923) of Bogotá’s police force, but gives you 45 minutes or so of contact time with 18-year-old, English-speaking local guides who are serving a one-year compulsory service with the police (interesting tales to be heard). The best parts otherwise follow cocaine-kingpin Pablo Escobar’s demise in 1993 – with a model dummy of his bullet-ridden corpse – or the surreal juxtaposition of a Neanderthal-fight mural before cases and cases of more modern means of killing each other (pistols and rifles).
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Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino
Exquisite pottery from most major pre-Colombian cultures is the backbone of Santiago’s best museum, the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino. As well as dozens of intricately molded anthropomorphic vessels, star exhibits include hefty Mayan stone stele and a fascinating Andean textile display. More unusual are the wooden vomit spatulas used by Amazonian shamans before taking psychoactive powders. Note that though Sunday admission is free, groups of two or more are pressed into a ‘voluntary’ contribution.
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Museu Nacional de Belas Artes
Rio’s Museu Nacional de Belas Artes houses more than 18,000 original paintings and sculptures, some of which date back to works brought over from Portugal by Dom João VI in 1808. One of its most important galleries is the Galeria de Arte Brasileira, with 20th-century classics such as Cândido Portinari’s Café. Other galleries display Brazilian folk art, African art and furniture, as well as contemporary exhibits. Guided tours are available in English (call ahead).
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Museo Taurino
The Plaza de Acho, Lima’s bullring, has been located on the same site north of the Río Rímac since 1766. Here, some of the world’s most famous toreadors have taken on the bulls, among them the renowned Manolete from Spain. The Museo Taurino documents this history with cluttered displays of weapons, paintings, photographs and the gilded outfits worn by a succession of bullfighters – one of which includes gore holes and blood.
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Pinacoteca do Estado
This elegant neoclassical Pinacoteca do Estado museum houses an excellent collection of Brazilian - and especially Paulista - art from the 19th century to present, including works by big names such as Portinari and Di Cavalcanti. Extensive renovations have made it a pleasant place to while away a rainy afternoon, and there is an attractive café that spills out into the adjacent Parque da Luz.
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Museu Théo Brandão
The Museu Théo Brandão is housed in a handsomely renovated colonial building on the seafront. Excellent exhibits cover the state’s history and popular culture; the most impressive displays are festival headpieces modeled after churches, which are loaded with mirrors, beads and multicolored ribbons and weigh up to 35kg. Traditional dance performances are staged some evenings.
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Museu da Língua Portuguesa
Half of Estação da Luz has been given over to this recently inaugurated Museu da Língua Portuguesa museum, with fascinating permanent exhibits documenting the rise of the Brazilian language as distinct from European Portuguese, as well as creative temporary installations celebrating Brazilian literature. Note, though, that all accompanying signs are in Portuguese only.
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Instituto Moreira Salles
The beautiful Instituto Moreira Salles, next to the Parque da Cidade, contains an archive of more than 80,000 photographs, many portraying the old streets of Rio. The gardens, complete with artificial lake and flowing river, were designed by Brazilian landscape architect Burle Marx. There’s also a craft shop and a café serving lunch and afternoon tea.
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Museo del Barro
Everyone's favorite, Museo del Barro, is east of the center in a slick modern neighborhood. It displays everything from modern paintings to pre-Columbian and indigenous crafts to political caricatures of prominent Paraguayans. Take bus 30 from Oliva and alight at Av Molas López; the museum is to the south off Callejón Cañada in a contemporary building.
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Coca Museum
Chew on some facts inside the small, slightly tired Coca Museum, which explores the sacred leaf’s role in traditional societies, its use by the soft-drink and pharmaceutical industries, and the growth of cocaine as an illicit drug. The displays (ask for a translation in your language) are educational, provocative and evenhanded.
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Museo Nacional
Museo Nacional, Centro Internacional's principal attraction, is housed in the expansive, Greek cross–shaped building called El Panóptico, designed as a prison by English architect Thomas Reed in 1874. Walking through the (more or less) chronological display of Colombia’s past, you pass iron-bar doors into white-walled halls.
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Memorial JK
The tomb of JK (President Juscelino Kubitschek) lies underneath eerily beautiful stained glass by French artist Marianne Peretti inside the Memorial JK. The museum houses JK’s 3000-book-strong personal library as well as a pictorial history of Brasília. Don’t miss his 1973 Ford Galaxie just outside the back door.
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Museo Etnográfico de Artesanía de Ecuador
Just north of the Mariscal, the small but worthwhile Museo Etnográfico de Artesanía de Ecuador exhibits the artwork, clothing and utensils of Ecuador’s indigenous people, with special emphasis on the peoples of the Oriente. It’s run by the outstanding Fundación Sinchi Sacha, and there’s a pleasant café on-site.
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Instituto Ricardo Brennand
From Tuesday to Friday afternoons, you can visit the scenic Instituto Ricardo Brennand, Oficina Cerâmica Francisco Brennand's cousin’s museum. This contains a massive collection of European and Brazilian art, swords, armor and historical artifacts in a fake medieval castle on lovely grounds.
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Museu Histórico Abílio Barreto
The free Museu Histórico Abílio Barreto, southwest of Savassi, features a renovated colonial farmhouse, the solitary remnant of Curral del Rey, the rural village destroyed in the 1890s to make room for Belo. There are some fascinating historical photos and other bric-a-brac.
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Museo de Antioquia
In the grand art-deco Palacio Municipal, the Museo de Antioquia is Colombia’s second-oldest museum and one of its finest. The collection includes pre-Columbian, colonial and modern art collections, as well as many works donated by native son Fernando Botero.
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Museo de la Ciudad
In a restored galpón (sheepshearing shed), the Museo de la Ciudad has impressive exhibits, from logging to military displays, postal communications to cartography, indigenous artifacts to yet another milodón, an extinct giant sloth.
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Museo de Historia Natural
One block west of cuadra 12 of Av Arequipa, south of the Parque de la Reserva, the Museo de Historia Natural, run by the Universidád de San Marcos, has a modest taxidermy collection that’s a useful overview of Peruvian fauna.
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Museo Nacional de Historia Natural
If your kids have a taste for the bizarre, check out the dusty stuffed animals (we’re talking taxidermy, not teddies) in the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, where displays look almost as old as the fossils they contain.
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