Gold Museum: Colombian heritage guarded in one place

But more than just displaying shiny items, the Gold Museum tells the story of Colombia’s ancestors through valuable pieces of metal.

It all started in 1939 when the Ministry of Education commissioned the Bank of the Republic to buy an indigenous device: the Poporo Quimbaya. And for more than 20 years, the Bank organized different exhibitions with this piece and other items that they gradually acquired.

By 1968, the current facilities, located at Santander Park in Bogotá, were built. It was the first structure designed and constructed for exclusive use as a museum. Now, after a big renovation and extension in 2008, it is one of the best history museums in the world.

Gold Museum: the permanent collection

With the renovation, the museum script was also renewed. The building now has four galleries that tell the story of the societies that inhabited the current Colombian territory between 500 BC and AD 1600.

Even though they have no particular order, the curators recommend following the natural cycle of metal when visiting the museum: the process of extracting it from the earth, working with it, using it, finding symbolism in it, and returning it to the earth as an offering. The galleries represent this cycle.

 Metal Work:

This room shows how the goldsmith and the miner transformed materials provided by nature to create timeless works of art. These two jobs were highly respected, which explains why many goldsmiths and miners served as religious and political leaders.

In this place, you can also see how pre-Hispanic societies were molded by the metallurgic techniques they developed 2.500 years ago. In the Colombian territory, the first metallurgical record is of hammered gold works from 500 BC. Here, complex techniques such as lost wax casting and the development of gold and copper alloys are evident. Later these techniques spread to Central America and the Caribbean.

2. People and Gold:

This gallery takes you on a trip from the south to the north, across thirteen archaeological regions where metallurgy flourished. The tour starts with the ancient societies and cultures that lived in the Andes mountain range and passes through the coastlines of the Pacific and the Caribbean.

Gold, ceramic, wood, stone, shell, and textile objects are exhibited in specific ways to allow you to experience an intimate connection with these old century pieces. All of them are perfectly illuminated with LED technology, the same used in the renowned Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá. There is a reason both places are always included in every list of the best places to visit in Colombia.

3. Cosmology and Symbolism:

This room houses several of the master objects of the collection, such as the Poporo Quimbaya. See these magnificent pieces of art through the eyes of the indigenous people.

It is virtually impossible to know how these societies understood the world. What is clear is that they had different interpretations of their existence and their cosmologies. This is a space for you to discover other realities, as logical as yours, created as a result of different experiences with the environment.

Gold Museum and the regional venues

Today this institution is part of a network of seven active museums around the country. In other words, a network of Colombian tourist attractions that allows their community to appropriate the cultural heritage of their region. The following are other places to visit in Colombia where you can find local art from 22 cultural zones. All the objects combined add up to more than 50,000 pieces.

• Tairona Gold Museum: located in Santa Marta, a few minutes from the famous Tayrona Park.
• Zenú Gold Museum: located in the historic city of Cartagena.
• Quimbaya Gold Museum: located in Armenia, at the heart of the coffee triangle.
• Calima Gold Museum: located in Cali, the capital of the fastest salsa dancing in the world.
• Nariño Gold Museum: located in Pasto, Southwest of the country.
• Leticia Ethnographic Museum: located in Leticia, the southernmost capital in Colombia.