Museo Nacional de Colombia

Founded in 1823, it is one of the oldest museums in the Americas, and since 1948 it has occupied El Panoptico - a radial prison designed by Thomas Reed and built from 1874, which held prisoners until 1946. The architecture is the point: the cell blocks radiate from a central hub so guards could observe all wings from one position, the Benthamite panopticon principle, and the galleries are the converted cells with the barrel vaults and heavy stone left visible. The collections run from archaeology through the colonial period, independence and the republic to modern art, with over twenty thousand objects. A long-running redesign has been rehanging the permanent galleries with a more critical account of the national story.

History

Congress established the museum by an act of 28 July 1823, together with a school of mines, which makes it the oldest museum in the country and one of the oldest in the Americas. Its first staff came from a scientific mission recruited in Europe: in 1822 Simón Bolívar resolved to create a mining school in Bogotá and left the recruiting to Francisco Antonio Zea, Gran Colombia's minister in Paris, and the Peruvian mineralogist Mariano Eduardo de Rivero y Ustáriz led the group, which included the French chemist Jean-Baptiste Boussingault; a decree of March 1824 named Rivero director of the museum and the school of mines (Wikipedia, National Museum of Colombia).

What to look for

• A radial prison of 1874 - built on the panopticon principle.
• Galleries in converted cells - stone vaults left visible.
• Over twenty thousand objects - archaeology to modern art.
• A museum founded in 1823 - among the oldest in the Americas.

When to go

Year round; closed Mondays. Two to three hours.

Good to know

Redesign work has closed galleries in rotation for years. Labelling is largely in Spanish. It closes Mondays. The building is more interesting than some of the displays.

Nearby

The Bogota Modern Art Museum is south; La Candelaria is beyond.

Key facts