South American History
Located just 200kms from the capital of Chile, Santiago, in the lovely city of Santa Cruz (region VI), is The Museum Of Colchagua, a place that offers visitors a truly unique experience to visually and highly informative exhibition with about Chilean and South American history that contains a collection of fossils, jewelry, paintings and even trains! The museum, inaugurated in 1995 and with more 3,300 square meters of exhibition is divided into two zones. The first one is indoor, and it begins by allowing the visitor to travel 300 million years to the past and see ancient fossils of fish, vegetables, insects, and even a live replica of the skeleton of a Smilodon in the paleontology section. The exhibition continues with a display of Chilean Prehispanic Culture that shows the cultural development of the zone before the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors. Here you can see tools produced with different materials, mummies, potteries, and textile of Chilean Prehispanic culture. The indoor section also has a hall dedicated to Prehispanic Culture in America – Mesoamerica, Intermediate Area and Andean Area, where you can see and read about the different art and artifacts produced by the Vicus, Viru, Chavin, Chancay and Inca cultures amongst many others. Other sections include information, art and artifacts from different periods of Chilean history like the conquest, colony, independence and republic, where you can see paintings, firearms, pictures of estates and even the original piano of the liberator of Chile, Bernardo O’Higgins. finishing this last part of the indoor museum, you will be able to see samples of religious art, paintings, clothing and the marvelous 19th and early 20th century carriages section. The outdoor zone of the Museum of Colchagua is also fascinating and interesting to walk, touch and feel. Here you can learn about trains from 19th century Chile and see antique farming machinery in a beautiful central patio, where you can snap a photograph. Considered the biggest private museum in all of South America and with more than 18 sections to see in this extraordinary place, including exhibitions about the huaso – typical Chilean character-, Jewels of the Andes, with items made by the Olmec, Maya, Aztec, Moche, Chimu and Inca cultures, and Hall filled with classic automobiles, the Museum of Colchagua is an excellent choice for travelers that want to know more about Chilean and South American history.
