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Cusco Museums, Museums in Cusco

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.

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• Exhibition: Valuable historical documents, collection of artifacts of the pre-Inca period; ceramics of pre-Inca cultures of Cusco and Peru, textiles, agricultural tools and musical instruments.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, Galerías Turísticas, 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 Díaz 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.

Please contact us for any comments, errors, or changes in the list of museums in Cusco.