★★★★★ 5.0
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Museo de America
Fire took almost everything. January 25th, 1734—the Alcázar Palace erupted in flames, consuming the Spanish crown's entire American collection. Centuries of treasures brought back by conquistadors... gone. But here, at the Museo de América on Avenida de los Reyes Católicos, you're standing inside what Spain deliberately rebuilt from those ashes. The modernist fortress before you was completed in 1954, designed by architects Luis Moya and Martínez Feduchi. It was a calculated resurrection. Inside these walls live more than 25,000 objects spanning from 10,000 BCE to today. Nearly half are pre-Hispanic pieces collected through three centuries of scientific expeditions and discoveries. See the Estela de Madrid—one of exactly two stone legs that held the throne of Maya king Pakal at Palenque. In 1937, diplomat Juan Larrea spent just two months in Peru and brought back 562 Inca masterpieces. That remains the most complete Inca collection anywhere outside the Americas. When this museum opened here in 1965, Spain transformed a catastrophe into an act of memory for civilizations history nearly erased.
Did You Know?
- : The Museo de América houses the world's most important collection of Quimbaya gold treasure, a spectacular hoard of pre-Columbian gold artifacts discovered in Colombia, which is considered unique and irreplaceable in global archaeological heritage.
- The museum's building, designed by renowned architects Luis Moya and Luis Martínez Feduchi, was constructed between 1943 and 1954 and features a striking blend of neoclassical and rationalist styles, with a central courtyard and a façade adorned with symbolic reliefs representing the Americas.
- Among its most mysterious artifacts are rare Maya and Aztec codices—ancient manuscripts that survived the destruction of countless others during the Spanish conquest, offering rare insights into indigenous writing, astronomy, and cosmology.