Museums and other places where objects of the past are on display
reveal much about the culture of a country.
Cusco museums teach us much about the life of early inhabitants of
Peru; objects used in their daily life as well as religious or symbolic
artifacts and even their weapons.
The people and places of Peru today are built upon their cultural past
and museums of Cusco, Lima, and
other interesting places serve to
record this history.
Among the interesting sites recording the history
of not only the Inca
Civilization but also earlier civilizations, a tour of the museums
in Cusco (Cuzco) city and province is recommended.
Although the list
below is fairly thorough, museums in Cusco, especially the smaller
ones, can come and go.
Cusco Museums - Museums in Cusco City
Cusco Museums
Cusco
is a beautiful city, full of museums and churches.
photo by kangotraveler
Museo Inca de la Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad
Cusco (Inca
Museum of the Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad Cusco)
Address: Cuesta del Almirante, Cusco
Phone: (084) 237380
Description: Pre-Columbian objects, funerary metallury,
stonework, textiles and crafts. Also paintings from of Colonial Cuzco.
Museo Historico Regional del INC Cusco (Regional
Historical Museum of Cusco INC)
Address:
Casa Garcilaso. Calle Heladeros, Cusco
Phone: (084) 223245
Exhibition:
Valuable historical documents, collection of artifacts of the pre-Inca
period; ceramics of pre-Inca cultures of Cusco and Peru, textiles,
agricultural tools and musical instruments.
Paintings and metal objects
from the colonial period. Colonial architecture: chapels bathed in gold
leaf; Cusco balconies (furniture). One of several Cusco museums that
also feature colonial and republican artifacts, such as currency.
Exhibition hall for contemporary art.
Museo del Templo del Qoricancha (Koricancha) de Cusco
(Museum of the Temple of Qoricancha (Koricancha) in Cuzco)
Address: El Sol, Cusco
Phone: (084) 222071
Description:
Occupies the square opposite the church of Santo Domingo. Prehispanic
objects are exhibited from different areas of Cusco. This is a small
museum of three rooms containing pre-Inca, Inca and colonial
objects, mostly from the excavations at Koricancha (in Quechua
Qurikancha "golden courtyard") during the period 1992-1995.
Museo de Ciencias Naturales de la Universidad Nacional San
Antonio Abad de Cusco (Museum of Natural Science of the Universidad
Nacional San Antonio Abad of Cusco)
Address: Paraninfo Universitario de Perayoc, Cusco
Description: Displays of flora and fauna of the region.
Museo del Instituto Americano del Arte (Museum of the
American Institute of Art)
Address: Avenida El Sol, GalerÃas TurÃsticas, Cusco
Description: An exhibit of folk art pieces in the region.
Museo de Arte Precolombino de Cusco (Pre-Columbian Art
Museum of Cusco)
Address: Plaza de
las Nazarenas – Cusco
In
a beautiful Inca court house which was built in 1450, House of the
conqueror Alonso DÃaz in 1580, the Earl of Cabrera in 1850 and
completely renovated June 2003.
Phone: (084) 233210
Description: First and only Peruvian museum dedicated to
highlight the art of ancient cultures of Peru.
Exhibition:
Hall of gold and jewelry, bone and shells, themed rooms and the
formative period of the cultures Nazca, Mochica,
Huari, Chimu, Chancay,
Inca.
Special Chamber of sculpture in wood. Room colonial
painting. Eleven rooms with 450 artworks ranging from 1250 BC until
1532 AD, selected from a collection of 45,000 objects belonging to the
storerooms of the Archaeological Museum in Lima.
Hours: 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day
Cost: S /. 15.00 (adults), S /. 7.50 (students), S /.
5.00 (schoolchildren)
Centro Andino de Tecnologia Tradicional y Cultura de la
Comunidades de Ollantaytambo (CATCCO) (Andean Center for Traditional
Technology and Culture of the Communities of Ollantaytambo)
El Parador, Casa del Horno, Calle Vetidero.
Mail: Apartado Postal 703.
Tel (084) 223627
One of several Cusco museums featuring artifacts from nearby
points of interest, it
contains five rooms on the second floor of a house on an ancient Inca
court, which allows visitors to learn more about the history,
archeology, architecture, crafts and beliefs of the people of
Ollantaytambo.
Museo Cusicancha
Plaza Sto. Domingo
Tel: +51 (0)84 263366
Open from Mon until Fri 7:00 until 14:45
Entrance free
Reconstructed Inca architecture
Tel. (084) 234441
Cusco
museums - Museums outside of Cusco City
Museo de Sitio de Pikillacta (Museum of the Pikillacta Site)
32 Km. from Cusco
museogarcilaso@inc-cusco.gob.pe
This is one of the province of Cusco museums that is worth a
separate trip. The
actual pre-Hispanic site of Pikillaqta is located at 3350
mts.
(11000 feet) of altitude and belonged to a city of the Wari Culture
located in present-day Ayacucho. The Wari culture is a mixture of
cultural elements of the Warpa, Nazca and
Tiawanako civilizations. It
initiated its territorial expansion and began the invasion of Wari
Cusco valley around 750 AD and continued until about 1200. In the early
development of the Inca period, the Waris were defeated and conquered
in this region but the city refused to be part of he empire. Today the
city contains about 700 buildings, 200 "kanchas" (apartments) and 504
"qolqas" (warehouses) and different buildings. It is estimated to have
had a population of approximately 10 thousand people.
Museo de Sitio de Chinchero (Museum of the Chichero Site)
Plaza de Armas, Chinchero
museochinchero@hotmail.com
Another of the province of Cusco museums, this museum is a
small museum located in the Plaza de Armas Chinchero, about
thirty miles from Cuzco, in front of the church. The museum displays
artifacts from the Incan ruins of Chinchero, behind the Plaza de Armas.
It has two spacious surroundings. In the entrance are archaeological
artifacts from the area (utilitarian ceramics, skeletal remains; metal,
brass, and stone artifacts, mortars for grinding grain and plants,
among others) as well as photographs and a huge block of stone carved
in the shape of a puma. The second room displays a large collection of
paintings from the Cusco School and two mannequins dressed in costumes
from the region.
Cusco museums are without doubt monuments of some of the oldest great
civilizations of humanity in the Americas.
The present-day economic and civil system in Peru, however, is not as
stable as past history, so check with local sources once you get to
Cusco as to which of the Cusco museums is available for tours.
The word Museum, introduced into Alexandria by Ptolemy
Philadelphus in the third century BC to appoint the first scientific
research institute of antiquity, aptly applies to the Cusco museums.
