Latin America is a melting pot of history, culture and the arts. Each country in the region has its own unique blend of precolonial history, intermingled with the culture of European settlers, people from other parts of the world and post-independence growth, resulting in colorful and vibrant mixtures of cultures and arts. The word “interesting” is an understatement once you started exploring Latin American culture. Museums in each Latin American nation offer their own unique introduction to local history, culture and arts — from pre-Hispanic traditions to colonial artistry to the most forward-thinking Latin American contemporary art.
To help you plan your next Latin America vacation, here are five must-see museums from different parts of Latin America. Some are big and well-known and others are smaller and not as famous, but they are all worth visiting.
• Museo Nacional de Antropología (National Museum of Anthropology), Mexico City: The largest and arguably best museum in all of Mexico is also the most visited, as it houses an unequalled collection of significant pre-Columbian archaeological and anthropological artifacts, such as the Aztec calendar stone (or Stone of the Sun)and the 16th-century Aztec Xochipilli statue. The museum’s eye-catching architecture is the work of Vazquez, Camposano and Mijares. It’s easy to spend an entire day — or more — exploring the various exhibition halls, which surround a courtyard with a large pond and the vast “el paraguas” or umbrella, an architectural element with cascading artificial waterfalls.
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• Museo del Oro (Gold Museum), Bogota, Colombia: This Bogota museum displays an impressive collection of pre-Hispanic gold work — not only the biggest in Colombia, but also reportedly the largest in the world. Key items from a collection of some 55,000 pieces are on display, offering glistening insights into the history of the region.
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• Museu Imperial (Imperial Museum), Petrópolis, Brazil: Emperor Pedro II’s summer residence of 1862 is without question a jaw-dropping tourist attraction with its neoclassical style of architecture. After the fall of his empire in Brazil, the building was converted into the St. Vincent de Paul College. One of the college’s students, Alcindo de Azevedo Sodre, came up with the idea to turn the former residence into a museum — and later, as the museum’s first director, he gathered signatures to convert it into the Imperial Museum of Brazil. The museum opened in 1943 with a collection of documents and artifacts belonging to the defunct empire. Tourists now visit the museum to view its over 300,000 items of contemporary art as well as to admire the palace itself. It is one of the top museums in the Rio de Janiero area.
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• Museu Paulista (Paulista Museum), São Paulo, Brazil: The Museu Paulista is located on the spot where Brazil’s first emperor, Emperor Pedro 1 (Dom Pedro), shouted “Independência ou Morte!” These days, this museum hosts exhibits from four centuries of Brazilian history, including Brazilian empire artifacts, furniture, artwork and historic documents — spanning . This museum is operated by the University of São Paulo. Architecturally similar to the Palace of Versailles in France, Museu Paulista also known as the Museu do Ipiranga. It was designed and built by Tommaso Gaudenzio Bezzi between 1885 and 1890 as a memorial to Brazil’s independence from Portugal, which is why it was constructed exactly where the shout for independence happened.
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• Museo de Arte Tigre (Tigre Art Museum), Argentina: Adorned with French chandeliers, Venetian mirrors and water-colored paintings by Julio Vila y Prades on its walls and ceilings, this museum by the banks of Argentina‘s Lujan River was designed by Pablo Pater and Luis Dubois. The venue is set on the location of a casino that once attracted the bourgeois, rich and famous of Argentina, but was later shuttered, along with the adjacent hotel.