Museo El Castillo

The house was built in 1930 for Jose Tobon Uribe in a Gothic-revival manner modelled on the chateaux of the Loire, and bought in 1943 by Diego Echavarria Misas, a textile industrialist, and his wife Benedikta Zur Nieden - they filled it with what they collected in Europe and Asia and left it, with everything in it, to become a museum on their deaths. Their daughter Isolda died young. The gardens are formal French style with a rose garden and terraces looking over the valley, and are used for concerts and events.

History

The architect Nel Rodríguez built the house in 1930 in a medieval Gothic style inspired by the castles of the Loire Valley, as the home of the physician José Tobón Uribe, and in 1943 the industrialist Diego Echavarría Misas bought it for his family. Today its nine rooms of permanent exhibitions hold porcelain and glass, stained glass, antiques, paintings and sculpture, with a garden outside (Wikipedia, El Castillo Museum).

Highlights

• A 1930 Gothic-revival house - modelled on Loire chateaux.
• The Echavarria collection - European and Asian objects, left in place.
• Formal French gardens - with terraces over the valley.
• The family rooms - furnished as the Echavarria household left them.

When to go

Year round. An hour and a half.

What to expect

The house is seen by guided tour, mostly in Spanish. It is in the hills above El Poblado and needs a taxi. Events close the gardens at times. It is small for the journey.

Nearby

El Poblado is below; Medellin's centre is north-west.

Key facts