A museum for the people

Some museums display the works of famous artists. Others glorify the deeds of legendary generals and political figures. The subject of Quito's new City Museum is simply people and how they lived over the past four centuries.

The crown jewel of the Quito Historic Center project, the museum is housed in the completely restored 434-year-old San Juan de Dios Hospital. Among its exhibits are life-size dioramas and artifacts that range from colonial sculptures and Amazon forest trees to a 19th century horse carriage and huge paila kettles used for cooking on haciendas. Museum goers can also tour the hospital's exquisite chapel and view a patient ward preserved as it was four centuries ago, with straw pallet beds set in arched niches.

The museum was opened last August by Quito Mayor Jamil Mahuad, a strong supporter of the museum and its daily life concept, and of the Quito Historic Center project, just before he became Ecuador's president. In the race to complete the museum on time, the museum staff and construction workers worked around the clock. "We slept here in sleeping bags," said Patricia von Buchwald, museum director. "People warned us that there were ghosts here, but nothing was going to stop us!"

Ever since its opening, the Quito City Museum has been packing them in. About half the museum's monthly visitors are school children. They are learning to be proud of their past as Quiteños and of their world-class museum.

Date posted: June, 1999