Whatever your age or interest is, Quito’s Old Town will sure have a museum

that catches your imagination, and allows you to feel closer to understand this
complex and mesmerizing metropolis. As the first UNESCO World Heritage
Site, Quito’s Historic Center is a museum in and of itself. Its colorful and colonial
buildings go from the winged Virgin Mary known as “La Virgen del Panecillo”, to
magnificent churches, maniors, and plazas that transport you to a mysterious
world from a long forgotten era where you’ll find the best cultural museums in
Quito’s Old Town.
CITY MUSEUM
The City Museum was opened in 1998. It´s located in the building of the former
“San Juan de Dios” Hospital, an institution that served Quito from 1565 until
1974. Naturally, it´s one of the oldest buildings in the city. The museum has
permanent exhibitions that portray the changes in Quito´s social fabric during
three historical periods. The first, which is an introduction to the Paleo indian
and Archaic period, demonstrates how ancient societies survived in this region.
The next hall is dedicated to the colonial regime. It describes how the Spanish
conquest created a mestizaje through the exchange of Spanish and
indigeneous cultural customs. Another area displays a museum project named
“Let´s build together the memory and history of the “San Juan de Dios” Hospital.
This conveys a vision on how diseases were treated and how health services
for the poor were delivered in those times.
MARÍA AUGUSTA URRUTIA HOUSE MUSEUM
It is located at Garcia Moreno Street in front of “La Compañía” Church. There is
a magnificent house that motivates a type of imaginary regression in our minds,
such as a time machine that transports visitors to a hidden lifestyle in the
Historic Center. It is the María Augusta Urrutia House Museum, which shows
the lifestyle of the Quito aristocracy in the 1920, and also recognizes the
humanitarian achievements of a woman who dedicated her life to social work.
Its traditional architecture holds a central courtyard, a water fountain, stone
pilasters on the ground floor and wooden on the upper floor. The walls have
mural paintings with floral designs that also appear in curtains and on the
tapestries of the 19th century furniture, in this splendid room that holds secret
treasures of conversations that determined many events of our history.
“YAKU” WATER MUSEUM
It’s a modern design and steel-framed architecture, fronted by pools of trickling
fountains, is also a refreshing change of scene in the colonial city. The museum
is located on the slopes of the Pichincha Volcano, where ancestral societies
had ceremonial baths. Yaku, which means “water” in Kichwa, is a celebration of
the value of water to the various aboriginal communities of Quito, and educates
on ways to protect the environment. This museum exposes ways in which the
city dealt with water purification in the past, with hands on activities and
experiments for adults and children of all ages, water dwelling creatures, and a
pathway through a magical forest displaying the wonder of water in Andean
wildlife.
COLONIAL ART MUSEUM
This spectacular collection of art from the colonial era takes you on a journey
through the city’s rich cultural heritage, displaying famous sculptures and
paintings of Quito Old School. Among the white washed passageways and
arches surrounding the serene courtyard of the restored 17 th century building
there are works by artists including Miguel de Santiago and Bernardo de
Legarda. Manuel Chili, who is a prominent in the collection, is the Indigenous
sculptor better known as Caspicara, whose major religious baroque style works
exemplified the 18th century movement in the Andes.