As second piece of my series about Santiago, my hometown, I wanted to share with you my favorite museums. I am a museum person and I enjoy visiting them when I am abroad, but also in my hometown.
I selected five of them, all very different and located in different parts of the city – not all of them touristy, so you will have the chance of visiting really local places and have a walk out of the common places all tourists visit in Santiago.
One of the most interesting museums in town and my personal favorite is the private Fashion Museum. Devoted to pop culture, fashion and trend, it was founded about 15 years ago by Jorge Yarur, owner of a bank in Chile who has a sharp sense of fashion and design. The museum has more than 10,000 amazing pieces, such as several Marilyn Monroe´s dresses, Madonna´s lingerie from Blonde Ambition Tour, Michael Jackson´s jacket from the Thriller video, and the very best attraction: the DeLorean from the Back to the Future movie.
All of them were acquired in auctions, even before the museum was open. Sadly, not all of them are put on display on the same exhibition, but if you get lucky, you will be able to see some of them. The place itself is worth visiting because it is a beautiful house with an interesting car installation at its entrance. It is located in an upper-class part of the city, which will allow you to feel the big difference between neighborhoods in Santiago.
Entrance fee is about 2.50 euros, and students get a 50% discount. To reach this place, take the metro to Baquedano station and walk about 5 minutes, crossing the bridge over the Mapocho River – impossible to miss it – and just after the bridge, at the corner of Pio Nono and Santa María, take the 502 bus going to Las Condes, and step out at the corner of Vitacura and Vespucio Norte. The bus ride will take about 23 minutes.
In Santiago we have two contemporary art museums: One in downtown, more traditional, and this second one, a bit far away but way more interesting because it is experimental – it takes more risk when it comes to exhibitions and it is free to visit. Also, it is in a different neighborhood, a middle-class, almost a popular one and really interesting to see as it is not a touristy area.
The last exhibition I visited, in October 2019, was Zimoun, opened by a Swiss artist who experiments with sound and repetition by installing little pieces with a motor which rotate and create sound. It was such an amazing experience. It is also interesting that such an innovative museum is located in a very traditional, classical building with beautiful high glass roof.
To get there, you take the metro to Estación Central, and walk following the Matucana Street, in the opposite direction from the big building you will see, our Central Railway Station. After 15 minutes, to your left, you will arrive to the museum. Be aware because pickpockets are well known in this part of the city.
Just in front of the Contemporary Art Museum, you will find the amazing building of the Memory and Human Rights Museum. The museum opened in 2010 and is an interactive space, which seeks to draw attention to the human rights violations committed by the Chilean state after the push in 1973 and until 1990.
It is a place which will make you value human life, freedom of speech and political opinion, and represents the horror of dictatorship and political violence of the state against its citizens. Because of the subject of museum´s exhibitions, there may be information and pictures that some people might find shocking, but I believe it is important we remember the atrocities that were committed in Chile, so it will never happen again.
The museum’s architecture is also remarkable. There is no entrance fee and you can combine your visit with the nearby Contemporary Art Museum.
This is a private museum that recently opened and which is remarkably interesting because of the way it presents and explains sound recording and reproduction to visitors. It’s not a science museum, so you won’t find explanations about what sound is from the standpoint of physics. Instead, it is focused on different ways of recording, preserving, and reproducing sound, and how all that was has been done during the last 200 years. There you will see old phonographs, discs, instruments and much more.
It is located in a beautiful old house in a traditional middle-class neighborhood. If you visit the museum after 2 p.m., the admission is free. During the morning, you must pay about 2 euros and students get a 50% discount.
To reach the place, go to the Unión Latinoamericana metro station and walk to Esperanza Street. Six blocks away – about a 15-minute walk and after you cross a narrow park – you will find the place at the corner of Huérfanos. You will also enjoy the nice walk in a totally non-touristy neighbourhood.
It is a very well-known and established museum, really worth seeing despite the high entrance fee. There you will find a remarkable collection of pre-Hispanic art and history. The collection has pieces from Chilean pre-Hispanic cultures, such as Atacameños, Mapuche, Rapa Nui and Pehuenche, together with pieces from Maya and Inca culture.
Museography is very impressive in this museum: On the outside, the museum is an old colonial building, but on the inside, you will see modern and open spaces, broad exhibitions and soft illumination, all very well organized and displayed. Visiting the museum will provide an in-depth immersion into Chilean and Latin American pre-Hispanic culture.
Entrance fee for foreigners is about 10 euros and students get a 50% discount. To reach the place, take the metro to Plaza de Armas – the main square in Santiago, which you can also visit, if you get the chance. The museum is located just around the corner. Be aware of the pickpockets, which this area is notorious for.
I hope you enjoyed my list of museums in Santiago. My next publications will be about beautiful parks you can visit and which are always nice because they are free, plus you can enjoy nature.
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