Sin lugar a dudas Quito es una de las más hermosas ciudades, debido a su historia, ubicación...
Without a doubt Quito is one of the most beautiful cities, due to its history, geographical location, art, but above all its wonderful people, this time we bring you a list of the 10 Museums you must visit in Quito.
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What are museums?
A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution, at the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, preserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purpose of education, study and recreation.
ICOM (Internatinal Council of Museums / Consejo Internacional de Museos)
Tipes of Museums
According to the heritage they exhibit, the way in which the collections are conceived and the perspectives according to which the testimonies are exposed, they can be grouped into:
- Art Museums
- History Museums
- Science Museums
- Museums of Social Sciences and Service to Society
- Natural History Museums
Most visited museums around the world
- El Louvre Paris France. (9.3 millions of visitors)
- National Museum of China (7.6 millions of visitors)
- National Museum of Natural History Washington DC USA (7.3 millions of visitors)
- National Air and Space Museum Washington DC USA (6.7 millions of visitors)
- British Museum – London England (6.7 millions of visitors)
- The National Gallery London England (6.4 millions of visitors)
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art – New York, NY, EE. UU. (6.3 millions of visitors)
- Vatican Museums – Vatican (6.2 millions of visitors)
- Tate Modern – London, UK (5.8 millions of visitors)
- National Palace Museum (Taiwan) – Taipei, Taiwan (5.4 millions of visitors)
International Museum Day
Every year since 1977, ICOM has organized International Museum Day, an exceptional moment for the international museum community.
The objective of International Museum Day (IDM) is to raise awareness of the fact that museums are an important medium for cultural exchange, the enrichment of cultures, as well as for the development of mutual understanding, collaboration and peace between peoples.
Organized every May 18 or around that date for more than 40 years, the events and activities planned to celebrate IMD can last a day, a weekend or even the whole week. More and more museums around the world are participating in this global celebration: last year 37,000 museums took part in the event in 158 countries and territories.
10 Museums you must visit in Quito
This is a totally subjective list, so it is impossible to cover each of the museums that exist in the capital of Ecuador, they are ordered without a specific order at the total discretion of the person who writes this article, you can leave your comments and suggestions to include more museums on the list.
This list has been made trying to cover the places that can contribute to history in all its eras, culture, development of thought, ancestral knowledge, appreciation of natural resources, contemporary art:
10 National Museum of Ecuador
The National Museum of Ecuador is the national museum of the Republic of Ecuador, founded in 1969 by the Central Bank of Ecuador and since 2010 in charge of the Technical Undersecretary of Social Memory of the Ministry of Culture and Heritage of Ecuador. The museum is located in the city of Quito, within the facilities of the building of the House of Ecuadorian Culture.
MUNA-Q is considered the largest museum institution in the country, since it maintains the largest collection of ancestral goods, a variety of paintings by different artists and periods, as well as vessels and ceremonial figures from various periods of Ecuadorian history.
Address: Av. Patria and Av. Seis de Diciembre Building of the House of Ecuadorian Culture Quito, Ecuador
Wb Site: https://muna.culturaypatrimonio.gob.ec/index.php
Telephone: +(593) 939 520 395 – Only calls
Entrance fee: Free
9 Museo de la Ciudad. City Museum
The City Museum is a history museum located in the Historic Center of Quito, the capital of Ecuador, on García Moreno E1-47 and Rocafuerte streets. It was founded on July 23, 1998, and occupies the infrastructure of what was the San Juan de Dios Hospital, an establishment that has been considered Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
Inside, the history of Quito is exhibited, as well as the history of the hospital’s 400 years of operation. The National Museum of Medicine of Ecuador, in Quito, was founded on March 5, 1983 by Dr. Eduardo Estrella, an Ecuadorian doctor and researcher who, among many other works, published Flora Huayaquilensis: The Botanical Expedition of Juan Tafalla 1799-1808.
Address: García Moreno S1-47 y Rocafuerte / Bulevar 24 de Mayo y García Moreno, Quito EC
Web Site: http://www.museociudadquito.gob.ec/
Telephone: (5932) 2283 882 extention 100
Entrance fee: Adults $3.00 / Students $2.00 / Children $1.50 / Seniors and people with disabilities free admission.
8 Fray Pedro Gocial Franciscan Museum
This museum exhibits the most important collection of cultural assets in all of America. Inside there are more than 250 restored works of religious art (in painting and sculpture) from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, such as the “Immaculate”, the Holy Trinity and the Holy Family.
Address: García Moreno S1-47 y Rocafuerte / Bulevar 24 de Mayo y García Moreno, Quito EC
Web Site: https://museosanfranciscodequito.com/
Telephone: (593 2) 295 2911
Entrance Fee: Ecuadorian adults 2,00 USD/Ecuadorian students 1,00 USD/Ecuadorian seniors 1,00 USD Ecuadorian Children 0,50 USD/foreign adults 2,00 USD/foreign students 2,00 USD foreign seniors 2,00 USD/foreign children 1,00 USD/people with disabilities free entry.
7 Museo Casa de Sucre
The Casa de Sucre Museum is a cultural institution located in the city of Quito, capital of Ecuador. It is dedicated to the memory of its most famous occupants: the Venezuelan Marshal Antonio José de Sucre, Latin American independence hero, and his wife, the lady from Quito, Mariana Carcelén, Marchioness of Solanda and Villarocha.
Address: Venezuela N2-67 y Sucre esquina
Web Site: http://www.museosquito.gob.ec/casadesucre/
Telephone: (593 2) 295 2860
Entrance Fee: Gratuito
6 Agave Spirit
It is the first museum in Ecuador created 100% in honor of the Andean agave culture, in the same way it is a tribute to the MISHQUEROS guardians of this wonderful tradition.
This wonderful one-day route covers unconventional places in the valley of the middle of the world, Catequilla Temple, Quito bat caves, the Agave house, brewing processes, chicherías; the real face of half the world integrating community, responsible and alternative tourism.
AGAVE SPIRIT ECUADOR is a comprehensive project that has worked for the recovery of knowledge and enhancement of one of the oldest heritage of the equatorial inter-Andean valleys, the Agave culture, all its uses and derivatives.
Address: Quishuar N3-29 y Casitahua Pomasqui
Web Site: https://casa-agave-ecuador.com/es/home/
Telephone: +593 998316455 / 022354426
Entrance Fee: Contact the museum directly for costs and available tours.
5 Yaku Water Museum
It is a space that triggers more questions than answers, the strategic axis is water, because our lives depend on it, they share a space for interaction, emotions and knowledge, water is shown from its various perspectives: science, art, the natural, the spiritual, history, the social and everyday life.
It was decided to implement this museum due to the location, historical and current use of the physical space where it is located. The richness and complexity of the water issue generates wide potential fields for reflection, action and social transformation. It is important to value and reflect on the social and political facts related to water at the local, national and international levels.
Address: Barrio «El Placer» Oe11-271 Quito Ecuador.
Web Site: http://www.yakumuseoagua.gob.ec/
Telephone: (5932) 2511 100 / ext: 117 / 123
Entrance Fee: Adults $3, students (with card) $2, children (de 3 a 11 years) and seniors $1.50, People with disabilities (with a card) enter for free.
4 Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús
The Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús de Quito Foundation was created with the purpose of preserving, maintaining and disseminating the artistic and cultural wealth of the Iglesia de la Compañía. Get to know the architectural beauty of the Iglesia de la Compañía; Baroque-style church, built by the Jesuits between 1605 and 1765 and inspired by two emblematic Roman Jesuit temples: II Gesú and San Ignacio.
The temple of the Company, known worldwide for having been carved and decorated by innumerable Quito artists, with fine sheets of 23-carat gold that cover the interior of the church centimeter by centimeter, which was built over 160 years.
It is a beautiful architectural work that houses magnificent pieces of art from the Quito School, among which the 16 prophets by the artist Nicolás Javier Goribar and two large canvases of Hell and Last Judgment by Brother Hernando de la Cruz stand out, whose facsimiles painted by Alejandro Salas in the 19th century they are located at the north and south ends of the church.
Address: García Moreno y Sucre 170401 Quito – Ecuador
Web Site: http://fundacioniglesiadelacompania.org.ec/
Telephone: (02) 2581 895 / 2584 175
Entrance Fee: National adults USD 2.50 / university students USD 1.00 / high school students USD 0.50 / foreign adults USD 5.00 / foreign students USD 2.50
3 Museo Alberto Mena Caamaño (Wax Museum)
The «Alberto Mena Caamaño Museum of Art and History» was created 56 years ago by Ordinance of May 28, 1957, from the fund donated by Alberto Mena Caamaño, which consisted of approximately 600 objects including paintings, sculptures, archaeological pieces, weapons and miscellaneous items. It was considered to install it in the spaces of the old Royal Barracks of Quito.
Ten years later, in 1970, a scene recreating the massacre of August 2, 1810 was opened to the public. The figures were made in wax by Alexander Barbieri, a Peruvian artist living in Paris, who took as a model a painting painted at the beginning of the 20th century by César Villacrés entitled «The Sacrifice of Quiroga». From then on it was popularly known as the “Museo de Cera” Wax Museum.
Address: García Moreno 887 y Espejo Quito – Ecuador.
Web Site: https://museoalbertomenacaamano.wordpress.com/
Telephone: (593 2) 395 2300 ext. 15535 – 15528 – 15507
Entrance Fee: Adults USD 1.50 / students with card USD 0.75 children from 5 to 11 years old, seniors and people with disabilities USD 0.50
2 La Florida Site Museum
Florida shows a funerary architecture formed by several tombs that are shaped like deep wells with a central chamber, the same ones that were built between the years 200 AD. and 680 AD When you visit the La Florida Site Museum you can see the tombs and tour the exhibition of funerary objects found on the site.
Chiefdoms inhabited the period between 200 A.D. and 680 AD. The studies carried out on the bone remains allow us to know that his height was below 1.55 m; their life range reached 45 years, they had a high consumption of corn, and their work activities were carried out in harsh environmental conditions. For the exchange with other regions, they had to walk long distances carrying and bringing products.
Address: Antonio Costas y César Villacrés – Sector La Florida
Web Site: http://www.patrimonio.quito.gob.ec/
Telephone: (593 2) 380 3043
Entrance Fee: Free
1 Capilla del Hombre
Capilla del Hombre (The Chapel of Man) is a cultural space that arises as a response to the need to pay homage to human beings, their peoples and their identity. It is a space that invites reflection on history from the point of view of Latin America.
Located in the Bellavista neighborhood, with a privileged view of Quito. It is the last and most important project of the master Oswaldo Guayasamín. It invites us to reflect on history from Latin America; from their world and ancestral cultures to contemporary miscegenation. Here his works are combined in large format, sculptures, his impressive architecture and open spaces, with the message of commitment to Human Rights, Peace and Solidarity.
Address: Mariano Calvache y Lorenzo Chávez, Bellavista
Web Site: http://www.museosquito.gob.ec/fundacionguayasamin/
Telephone: 448-492 / 3330-723
Entrance Fee: Adults USD$10/ Student and Seniors USD$5
Yapa (gift)
Ethnographic Museum of the Middle of the World
Thanks to the museum and museographic contributions of the current Ministry of Culture and Heritage of Ecuador, inside the Equatorial Monument there is an Ethnographic Museum for the benefit of the thousands of national and foreign tourists who visit it. The museum consists of nine levels, a ground floor and a viewing platform. The purpose of the museum is to expose the visitor to the main reasons why Ecuador is considered a pluri-national, inter-cultural and multi-lingual country.
Address: Av. Manuel Córdova Galarza, km 13,5 San Antonio de Pichincha
Web Site: http://mitaddelmundo.gob.ec/es/
Telephone: (593 2) 394 804 / 394 806 ext. 115
Entrance Fee: Adults USD 3.00 / children and seniors USD 1.50 persons with special abilities USD 1.50